Smile of a vixen
by Olive nerd
Summary: When an amnesiac villager visits the Jade Palace, she and Shifu encounter strange nightmares and connections. Now it's up to them and the Furious Five to find out who they use to be and who they almost were. But are they willing to go back? Shifu/OC, T/P
1. Prologue

Smile of a vixen

Prologue

I do not own Kung Fu Panda. Just to warn the curious eyes, this chapter has some gore.

By Olive Nerd

_Twenty years ago..._

"Why must you always worry so much?"

Xiang's head snapped in the groaning figure's direction. _He_ was the one who worried all the stinking time! So, what nerve did he have to say _she_ was worried?

"I'm not worried," Xiang blurted out. "I'm simply…perplexed. The healer said you'd recover-"

"Oh, stop your foolishness, girl! I'm as good as dead…."

With a heavy heart, she cupped his small face with delicate paws. "No. You're not. And you're going to live. It doesn't matter how hopeless this is, or how we're both stuck in a leaking hut, or that this happened to Baba…" Xiang's words suddenly tangled under the intensity of her salty tears. She just babbled right on the spot and under the dying figure's weary gaze.

Since he was trained to be as sharp as a spear when it came to emotions, the red panda would've scolded Xiang. Yet, since he knew how slim his chances were of surviving, he decided to bring a trembling forefinger to her lips. "Sh Sh," he soothed. "Go without me with the council-"

His friend gently held him in a tearful embrace, leaving remainders of her crying on his peasant robes and bandages. Sure, it wasn't the most comfortable hug he'd received, yet he didn't care. He was in need of comfort at this point. And even in this situation, an unintentional feeling crept within his chest.

"Don't let me go without you," Xiang sobbed endlessly. "You big-headed IDIOT, YOU! You're NOT doing to die!"

"Xiang-"

"NO!" The red panda roughly released herself, stood up, and glared at him unforgivably. "I won't believe it…" She gave out a hoarse cough. "I'm going to get some help-"

"Xiang," he called out as loudly as he could. With a firm grasp of her left wrist, he stared Xiang down. "You're sick, and I can tell. Just wait for-"

"That's all we're doing! WAITING FOR-"

A swift sword thrashed a damaging cut in the tiny straw hut the two red pandas were in. Three moronic gorillas burst in and wore mustard yellow smiles.

"We finally found the daughter of the little fan criminal. Well, come on then! Let's give the father and daughter their reunion."

'Daddy?' Xiang's eyes fluttered in hope and agony at the mentioning of her dad. "If-If he's been hurt-"

"Shut it and carry you lame friend with us, tramp!"

"Call her tramp one more time." Xiang whirled in shock at her companion, who's eyes were mirroring andy, hungry flames. "See what happens, ape."

"I'm a gorilla, raccoon!"

"At least I have the guts. Look at how your pathetic army crippled from losing to a pair of weasels!"

"SHUT IT!"

"MAKE ME!"

"AT LEAST I NEVER BOSSED AROUND A SMELLY, WRETCHED, LIMP DOG!"

All at once, the red panda's temper rose. The other two gorillas and Xiang involuntarily stepped back.

The red panda gritted his teeth, rose, and leapt to attack the gorilla. "TAKE THAT BACK!" The two wrestled, flipped, and even bit each other until both staggered in the rain outside.

Then, the malicious gorilla took out a drenched dagger and aimed it at the red panda's forehead. "You're finished, runt. With one swipe of that little head of yours,-" A swift figure knocked him to the ground.

To the male red panda's shock, Xiang was abruptly slashed in the forehead with the same dagger in the chest and kicked away. Drenched and leaving a pool of thick blood, the poor creature was moaning in defeat.

"Don't," he softly begged her from his weak spot, even though he knew she couldn't hear him. But then, Xiang rose her head to smile sincerely at her friend. And with soft lips, she mouthed 'See you,' and drooped hopeless in her blood.

A small, visible tear escaped his icy blue eyes. Yet before he could confront the killer, a darker dagger was jabbed into his forehead. And before he knew it, his world was blurring and decaying.


	2. Vacations and visitors

Vacations and visitors

There were two common worries that foreshadowed a terrible morning for Shifu; nightmares and waking up from them.

Once in a while, the red panda master's dream were decent. Maybe, oh just maybe his students would turn tolerable or Oogway would be there to visit him. And of course, he still had the occasional but expected nightmares about Tai Lung. But this nightmare was even more terrifying and uncommon then any of the dreams he'd had about Tai Lung. It was as if his mind was trying to redirect him in a shadowed, haunted path that he was always avoiding. It perplexed but also interested him.

Thankfully, he could not remember a droplet about the silly illusion. So, he decided to put it behind him. With firm steps, Shifu strolled to the Bunkhouse, where six of his students were asleep for the moment.

In the Training room of the famous Jade Palace, six Kung Fu masters were debating about the very slim possibility that their strict master will let them have a break.

"You know, that has got to be the stupidest reason for a break that I've _ever _heard." Every Kung Fu master, excluding the giant panda, nodded at the mantis' comment.

"GUYS," Po whined girlishly. "Master Shifu's been complaining a lot about the ceiling anyway! So, why not now?"

"Po, your expecting us to lie," Monkey pointed out.

"No I'm not!"

"You said that we'd tell him we're running 'errands for ceiling teachers who live in the Zhong Province! Buddy, everyone knows that there's no such thing as a 'ceiling teacher'. And even if he let us do it, do you really think that he'd let us all take a three-day trip to Zhong Province just to fetch an expert or get ceiling necessities?"

"Well monkey…" Po trailed off sheepishly and hung his head. "I didn't get to that part yet and-"

"Wait guys." Tigress slammed the giant panda's mouth shut with a firm paw, not noticing Po's red face. Unfortunately, Monkey and Mantis did and giggled teasingly.

Tigress' amber eyes were peeled on the palaces' front and _opened_ entrance. "Someone has entered."

"Maybe it's Zeng with some news," Po stated absentmindedly, while setting the dishes up for breakfast.

"Po, Zeng is a _bird_; he _flies_ over the gate," Crane explained.

"Heh, heh, thanks for making a bigger fool out of me, Crane."

"Don't mention it."

"Guys." Viper slithered to the door and turned to her friends. "Are we going to spend all day arguing about preferences or are we going to find the intruder?"

"You guys go ahead." Po began to crack some eggs and sizzle them on the stove. "I'm cooking omelets for the team and their sleep in master. Let me know what happens."

For a moment, the Furious Five gave Po a questioning stare, since he looked like he was actually concentrating on something so simple. And on top of that, Po would never miss the chance of bringing intruders to justice! His jade green eyes were darker, as if a _huge_ topic was captivating his mind.

"Um…okay." Viper slithered off, and the male masters followed their graceful comrade. Tigress, however, lingered for a moment to stare at Po skeptically.

"Po? Is everything, well, decent?"

"Handy dandy, Ti."

"Because, today you seem so-"

"Out of place?"

"Well, _focused_."

Po laughed at her point of view and glanced at her. "Can you keep a secret?"

The feline marched up to the giant panda and playfully punched his right shoulder. "You're forgetting that I'm a Kung Fu master that stands for pride, justice, and the good of my people. Spill."

"It's stupid, but I guess I have no other choice."

Po checked to make sure the coast was clear and thrashed open a lower cabinet. Inside, a small, lean red panda was asleep under three sacks of picked rice. Her gold-white fur was slightly frizzy, but nonetheless soft and fluffy. Parts of her body were tan, and she was wearing a dark brown wrap dress. To both Po and Tigress, she was the size of a red panda adolescent with a beautiful but unordinary presence.

Tigress took her eyes off of their 'guest' for a moment and growled at Po.

"Po? Who in the China is _that_?"

"A red panda- OOF! Hey!" Po rubbed the sore part of his belly from where Tigress hit him.

"You IDIOT! Do you even KNOW who she is?"

"Well she looked like the kind of girl that'd get angry when awakened, and she woke me up last night from entering the gate and- oh…"

Tigress snarled at her ignorant friend and snatched his tiny right ear. "Let's go get Shifu, _panda._" The feline dragged the poor panda until they reached her master's headquarters. For a split second, Tigress pondered over the sudden change of their routine. Why hadn't Shifu woken up yet and left her to deal with an intruder?

But before she knocked, a fuzzy fist cupped her wrist. "Tigress? Whatever you say, please don't wake her up."

The feline had to give Po an unsteady look before asking him why he'd care. Po always was there to care for anyone, even a simple intruder. In times like these, she didn't know whether to look up to Po or disagree with him. "I'm only responsible for my own actions, Po. Shifu might do otherwise. But why do you care?"

With a hesitant expression, Po breathed in for air. "You see, she started saying really weird things in her sleep and-"

"What are you doing outside Shifu's bedroom door?"

Po squeaked and Tigress rolled her amber eyes at the confused primate. "Everyone's on the intruder search, and I wanted to check on you guys before anything weird started to happen." The primate snickered a little at his joke.

Glaring, Tigress shoved Monkey to the side. "We just wanted to inform Shifu that-"

"-That we're having omelets and-" Po's face fell. "THE OMELETS!" In a flash, the comical panda squealed and dashed back to the palace's kitchen.

One Po left, Monkey wore a knowing smirk. "Okay, Tigress. What's going on?"

"You can say that our fool of the Dragon Warrior welcomed a complete stranger in the Jade Palace last night," Tigress stated with a frown.

Covering his mouth with two paws, Monkey shook his head. "No…"

"You'd think I'd lie?"

"No, not that! It's obvious! Po has a girlfriend!" The primate chuckled and leapt over the annoyed tigress.

"He does n-"

"What was that Tigress?" Monkey gave her a cunning smile and leaned in to hear her words. Tigress may not have much experience with the world of friendship, yet she knew what teasing was.

"You've got the wrong idea."

"Not yet I don't," Monkey slyly mouthed and ran to gossip with his insect friend.

"I'm getting too old for this lousy routine."

There, right in front of Shifu, was a young villager of his species, asleep in the kitchen rice cabinet! If he wasn't so stressed from last night's nightmare, Shifu would've yelled right into her large ears. But the red panda master was doing something that he regretted; twitching. Often when he twitched, Shifu was either in complete shock or complete embarrassment. He felt as if he was twitching for both reasons.

But with one moan from the female intruder, Shifu's mind was on full alert. "CHILD!"

The red panda' jungle green eyes fluttered at the deep snap. With a yawn and crack in the delicate spine, she sat up. "Baba, I'm up so don't….oh dear scarlet. Who-"

"I believe that I should be the one asking you, villager." Shifu grabbed what he thought was his staff, yet it turned out to be a stirring spoon.

The young girl giggled at his mistake. "Are you an expert at the culinary arts? Because from where we are in a kitchen and your antics-"

"What's your name," Shifu snapped.

Her excited grin suddenly dropped into a black expression. "Sorry, I don't know; that's why I let that chubby dude invite me here-"

Shifu suddenly snatched her right wrist and threw her over his right shoulder. "I'm going to kill that panda," Shifu hissed.

"WOW!" The red panda was gawking from her position. "How'd you DO that, man?"

Ignoring the stranger, Shifu ran out of the kitchen entrance. A giant panda came in his path with a startled look on his gentle face.

"Master! Good Morning! We're glad you're up for the va- visitor! I mean-"

"So this is what you do," Shifu interrupted the Dragon Warrior. "You invite strangers behind my back!"

"But I'm on your back right now," the intruder called from behind him.

Po cocked his head and attempted to distract his stressed master. "Uh, master? Why's she on your back?"

"Po, the important thing right now is to figure out who she is."

"I tried," Po whined. "But all she said last night was that she was being chased down by her somehow ticked off dad."

"It's true," the stranger confessed. "And I began to have these nightmares….you know, about a certain ape dude? I know it's kind of stupid…but…"

Alarms went off in Shifu's overwhelmed mind. It seemed almost coincidental that he'd had a nightmare about an ape or gorilla that was harassing him and…some person, last night.

"Who is your dad," Shifu asked her quietly.

"I…" She scrunched up her face and buckled her knees in defeat. "I can't remember….it all ended with a bang…."

Confused with her reply and still very suspicious, Shifu turned to Po. "Po, summon the others to the Pool of Sacred Tears."

At the peaceful, reflective Sacred Pool of Tears, an anxious red panda was gazing curiously at the masters eyeing and surrounding her. She felt herself shrunk under so much attention and inched further away from them. But when she felt herself slip, Shifu grabbed left arm and prevented her from falling in the sacred waters.

"Thanks." She held her breath under the older-looking red panda's stunning sky blue eyes. She felt like a door was opened, a very important door with a clue that she couldn't put her finger on. One way or another, this guy was a part of her past.

"Hey, um, She wee."

"Shifu,and it's _Master_ Shifu to you."

"You're a teacher? I mean sure you seem disciplined but your students look a bit too old to-"

"I'm a _Kung Fu_ Master." His right eye was back in twitching business. Why was this villager bothering him with some nosy questions? But things only turned worse when he was forced to stagger back from the beaming red panda.

"THAT IS SO AMAZING! So, you guys just kick brains and rears or whatever?"

"No." Monkey gave an uneasy chuckle. "It's basically our job to protect to Valley of Peace from bandits."

"And intruders." Shifu gently pushed her away from the Furious Five and to the edge of the pool. "Which is why you, who could very well be a threat to entering the Jade Palace as a threat to our Valley, need to be viewed by Oogway."

The red panda in front of him eyed the pool curiously. "Who's Oogway? Is he some sort of guru or critic?"

"Only the Father of KUNG FU," Po exclaimed from behind the two and pumped his fists in the air enthusiastically.

Suddenly, a chilly but relaxing breeze drifted over the Sacred Pool and whisked smoothly around the eight animals. The intruder shivered over the familiar intensity of the breeze, as Shifu was subconsciously patting her tiny shoulders.

"She's alright, old friend." A breezy, bright image of the Grandmaster Oogway was hovering over the waters and grinning fondly at his old students. "Good morning, everyone. I do hope that you're continuing your training in peace…."

"Yeah. I still have to work on a few things about meditation and dodging," Po added nervously.

"Don't forget about your spare techniques," Tigress pointed out with a smirk.

Oogway chuckled at their sincerity. "I'm surprised, Tigress. You've grown up so much from when I last saw you. But…" His gleaming emerald eyes peered at the confused feline. "There's something more…"

"What is it, master?" Tigress felt a slight twinge of fear, knowing that it could very well mean that he had detected a dark or dishonorable trait in her being.

Master Oogway pointed at his left eye. "Your eyes haven't sparkled like that since this old man here adopted you from Bao Gu Orphanage. It's as if Po's ignorance and forgetfulness has…lightened you."

"Of all the ways to be lightened by your sparing partner," Mantis mumbled slyly, before receiving a silent hit on the head by Viper.

"Shifu." The aged turtle gave his old friend a sympathetic smile. "Fate is able to test our patience and sanity of our characters, and I'm afraid that fate has only given me three chances of telling you what lies within this girl's past."

With focused eyes on the turtle, Shifu beckoned Oogway to continue.

"I know that you're in need of a name, since you've already befriended her so well." Oogway snickered and nodded to Shifu's hands, which were still on the other red panda's back. Agitated and rather embarrassed, Shifu briskly released the now scarlet-faced girl.

"My name is Xiang," she felt herself say. "Wait-"

"There you go, little one. Your name is reveled."

"But, but I didn't know until-" Xiang paused and smiled at the situation. "I guess you're the kind of senior that leaves riddles and puzzles."

"You should hear from Shifu." Oogway began to drift away. "He knows how aggravating fate's riddles can be. He has one to solve for himself."

"Master?" Shifu turned at his old master's words with suspicions.

"Let Xiang stay, Shifu," Oogway told him, as he faded back into the wondrous breeze. "The old mind's young heart is in need of a young purpose to fight," And with an optimistic wave, the Grandmaster Oogway had dissolved and left eight speechless beings.

They were speechless, that is, until Xiang began to hum a cheerful melody.

Shifu eyed her sternly. "And why, in this valley, are you **humming**?"

"I was bored," she replied. "And next time, please don't grip my shoulders like that."

For one moment, Shifu felt the urge to apologize to that pair of striking jungle green eyes. Wait, what was _striking_ about this _stranger's_ eyes?

"Then maybe you shouldn't be so clumsy," Shifu shot back.

"Hey, we female red pandas tend to get a little carried away with our tiny feet. Besides, we all have our flaws. No offense, but I'd say yours is that really weird eye twitching habit of yours-"

"Will you _stop_ it?"

"Stop what?"

"Talking!"

"We all talk too, She De."

**"Shifu!"**

"Master?" Tigress approached the two red pandas and bowed to Shifu. "May I request that we return to our training?"

"You're all free to resume."

Soon, the Furious Five, Po, Shifu, and Xiang were in the small but creative kitchen. As Po served the platters, Xiang smiled at the giant panda. "You're a great cook. But i'm afraid that I didn't catch your name."

"I'm Po, and you can have an Oath Omelet, too."

"No, thanks. I'm not that hungry." She gazed dreamily at the window, which had a spectacular view of the foggy, mysterious mountains. "Xiang… It's so…tangy, like an orange that you want but don't want to eat."

Viper paused from her eating to look at Xiang. "So Xiang, you don't remember _anything_?"

"If you count my name and choice of awful clothes." She pouted at the not-so-stylish, torn up wrap dress.

"That's not the worst outfit I've seen," Mantis commented. "I once knew this butterfly who served at one of my favorite diners. She was more demanding than Temutai and always wore the most disgusting fabrics. Turns out, it was woven by a cockroach! You think people would have more sense!" Eveyone, even Shifu, gave Mantis an odd look. "What? The truth isn't always a clear face."

"Okay first of all; that was awkward. Second; who's Temutai?"

"He's a demanding water bull," Monkey remarked and snuck in a bite of his delicious omelet. "He's a warrior king that you do not want to come across."

"Yeah," Po agreed with a mouth full of eggs. Once he swallowed, the giant panda grinned at the memory. "Heh, we had to accompany and protect Princess Mei on her journey to that guy's city only to find that he wanted her as a servant."

Xiang shifted uneasily at the thought of imprisonment for any soul. "Continue, if you want."

Po's eyes suddenly lit up. "And Tigress was singing…" The feline's eyes immediately boggled.

"Oh snap!" Xiang set her gaze on the silent tigress. "You kick booty _and _sing?"

Slightly annoyed at her shock, Tigress' eyes met Xiangs'. "It is not my most favorable trait, and I was too-distracted from the situation to sing on key."

"Tigress, I must know." Shifu examined his daughter's slight traits of embarrassment. "Why were you forced to sing?"

"Master, since we were unaware of the fact that Temutai wanted the princess as his new servant until then, Po was out of ideas and insisted that I attempted to act like I was the princess."

"That wasn't the worst incident," Shifu groaned and rubbed his forehead at the memories of their previous missions.

"OH! Master, can we tell her about the time when Ti and I were-"

"No."

"Oh, come on!" Po pouted in doubt, but then giggled. "What about the time-"

"No."

"When you-"

"Panda-"

"Danced with a fan," Po squeaked.

But then, the table shook from an unexpected action. Xiang's hands gripped the wooden table, and her eyes were side with slight terror. And Tigress noticed that she kept on repeating the words, 'dance drone,' under her pants and breaths.

"Xiang?" Crane waved his left wing in her pale face.

_"How do you dance so…cautiously," a voice asked her in her mind's eye._

Shifu grabbed Xiang and shook her, feeling as if it was the only way to snap her back into reality. "Xiang! Xiang! Calm yourself at once!"

_"Don't be such a dance drone," Xiang replied._

Waking from her brief daydream, Xiang gasped at Shifu. "Master, um, a little space, please?"

Agitated at his behavior, Shifu returned to his seat. But no matter how many times he looked away from her, he always heard that strange but friendly voice in the back of his mind.

_"No one can stay mad at her forever, friend, not even you." _


	3. Brunches and bragging

**Xiang- fragrant, incense**

Brunches and Bragging

At the peaceful, reflective Sacred Pool of Tears, an anxious red panda was gazing curiously at the masters eyeing and surrounding her. She felt herself shrunk under so much attention and inched further away from them. But when she felt herself slip, Shifu grabbed left arm and prevented her from falling in the sacred waters.

"Thanks." She held her breath under the older-looking red panda's stunning sky blue eyes. She felt like a door was opened, a very important door with a clue that she couldn't put her finger on. One way or another, this guy was a part of her past.

"Hey, um, She wee."

"Shifu,and it's _Master_ Shifu to you."

"You're a teacher? I mean sure you seem disciplined but your students look a bit too old to-"

"I'm a _Kung Fu_ Master." His right eye was back in twitching business. Why was this villager bothering him with some nosy questions? But things only turned worse when he was forced to stagger back from the beaming red panda.

"THAT IS SO AMAZING! So, you guys just kick brains and rears or whatever?"

"No." Monkey gave an uneasy chuckle. "It's basically our job to protect to Valley of Peace from bandits."

"And intruders." Shifu gently pushed her away from the Furious Five and to the edge of the pool. "Which is why you, who could very well be a threat to entering the Jade Palace as a threat to our Valley, need to be viewed by Oogway."

The red panda in front of him eyed the pool curiously. "Who's Oogway? Is he some sort of guru or critic?"

"Only the Father of KUNG FU," Po exclaimed from behind the two and pumped his fists in the air enthusiastically.

Suddenly, a chilly but relaxing breeze drifted over the Sacred Pool and whisked smoothly around the eight animals. The intruder shivered over the familiar intensity of the breeze, as Shifu was subconsciously patting her tiny shoulders.

"She's alright, old friend." A breezy, bright image of the Grandmaster Oogway was hovering over the waters and grinning fondly at his old students. "Good morning, everyone. I do hope that you're continuing your training in peace…."

"Yeah. I still have to work on a few things about meditation and dodging," Po added nervously.

"Don't forget about your spare techniques," Tigress pointed out with a smirk.

Oogway chuckled at their sincerity. "I'm surprised, Tigress. You've grown up so much from when I last saw you. But…" His gleaming emerald eyes peered at the confused feline. "There's something more…"

"What is it, master?" Tigress felt a slight twinge of fear, knowing that it could very well mean that he had detected a dark or dishonorable trait in her being.

Master Oogway pointed at his left eye. "Your eyes haven't sparkled like that since this old man here adopted you from Bao Gu Orphanage. It's as if Po's ignorance and forgetfulness has…lightened you."

"Of all the ways to be lightened by your sparing partner," Mantis mumbled slyly, before receiving a silent hit on the head by Viper.

"Shifu." The aged turtle gave his old friend a sympathetic smile. "Fate is able to test our patience and sanity of our characters, and I'm afraid that fate has only given me three chances of telling you what lies within this girl's past."

With focused eyes on the turtle, Shifu beckoned Oogway to continue.

"I know that you're in need of a name, since you've already befriended her so well." Oogway snickered and nodded to Shifu's hands, which were still on the other red panda's back. Agitated and rather embarrassed, Shifu briskly released the now scarlet-faced girl.

"My name is Xiang," she felt herself say. "Wait-"

"There you go, little one. Your name is reveled."

"But, but I didn't know until-" Xiang paused and smiled at the situation. "I guess you're the kind of senior that leaves riddles and puzzles."

"You should hear from Shifu." Oogway began to drift away. "He knows how aggravating fate's riddles can be. He has one to solve for himself."

"Master?" Shifu turned at his old master's words with suspicions.

"Let Xiang stay, Shifu," Oogway told him, as he faded back into the wondrous breeze. "The old mind's young heart is in need of a young purpose to fight," And with an optimistic wave, the Grandmaster Oogway had dissolved and left eight speechless beings.

They were speechless, that is, until Xiang began to hum a cheerful melody.

Shifu eyed her sternly. "And why, in this valley, are you **humming**?"

"I was bored," she replied. "And next time, please don't grip my shoulders like that."

For one moment, Shifu felt the urge to apologize to that pair of striking jungle green eyes. Wait, what was _striking_ about this _stranger's_ eyes?

"Then maybe you shouldn't be so clumsy," Shifu shot back.

"Hey, we female red pandas tend to get a little carried away with our tiny feet. Besides, we all have our flaws. No offense, but I'd say yours is that really weird eye twitching habit of yours-"

"Will you _stop_ it?"

"Stop what?"

"Talking!"

"We all talk too, She De."

**"Shifu!"**

"Master?" Tigress approached the two red pandas and bowed to Shifu. "May I request that we return to our training?"

"You're all free to resume."

Soon, the Furious Five, Po, Shifu, and Xiang were in the small but creative kitchen. As Po served the platters, Xiang smiled at the giant panda. "You're a great cook. But i'm afraid that I didn't catch your name."

"I'm Po, and you can have an Oath Omelet, too."

"No, thanks. I'm not that hungry." She gazed dreamily at the window, which had a spectacular view of the foggy, mysterious mountains. "Xiang… It's so…tangy, like an orange that you want but don't want to eat."

Viper paused from her eating to look at Xiang. "So Xiang, you don't remember _anything_?"

"If you count my name and choice of awful clothes." She pouted at the not-so-stylish, torn up wrap dress.

"That's not the worst outfit I've seen," Mantis commented. "I once knew this butterfly who served at one of my favorite diners. She was more demanding than Temutai and always wore the most disgusting fabrics. Turns out, it was woven by a cockroach! You think people would have more sense!" Eveyone, even Shifu, gave Mantis an odd look. "What? The truth isn't always a clear face."

"Okay first of all; that was awkward. Second; who's Temutai?"

"He's a demanding water bull," Monkey remarked and snuck in a bite of his delicious omelet. "He's a warrior king that you do not want to come across."

"Yeah," Po agreed with a mouth full of eggs. Once he swallowed, the giant panda grinned at the memory. "Heh, we had to accompany and protect Princess Mei on her journey to that guy's city only to find that he wanted her as a servant."

Xiang shifted uneasily at the thought of imprisonment for any soul. "Continue, if you want."

Po's eyes suddenly lit up. "And Tigress was singing…" The feline's eyes immediately boggled.

"Oh snap!" Xiang set her gaze on the silent tigress. "You kick booty _and _sing?"

Slightly annoyed at her shock, Tigress' eyes met Xiangs'. "It is not my most favorable trait, and I was too-distracted from the situation to sing on key."

"Tigress, I must know." Shifu examined his daughter's slight traits of embarrassment. "Why were you forced to sing?"

"Master, since we were unaware of the fact that Temutai wanted the princess as his new servant until then, Po was out of ideas and insisted that I attempted to act like I was the princess."

"That wasn't the worst incident," Shifu groaned and rubbed his forehead at the memories of their previous missions.

"OH! Master, can we tell her about the time when Ti and I were-"

"No."

"Oh, come on!" Po pouted in doubt, but then giggled. "What about the time-"

"No."

"When you-"

"Panda-"

"Danced with a fan," Po squeaked.

But then, the table shook from an unexpected action. Xiang's hands gripped the wooden table, and her eyes were side with slight terror. And Tigress noticed that she kept on repeating the words, 'dance drone,' under her pants and breaths.

"Xiang?" Crane waved his left wing in her pale face.

_"How do you dance so…cautiously," a voice asked her in her mind's eye._

Shifu grabbed Xiang and shook her, feeling as if it was the only way to snap her back into reality. "Xiang! Xiang! Calm yourself at once!"

_"Don't be such a dance drone," Xiang replied._

Waking from her brief daydream, Xiang gasped at Shifu. "Master, um, a little space, please?"

Agitated at his behavior, Shifu returned to his seat. But no matter how many times he looked away from her, he always heard that strange but friendly voice in the back of his mind.

_"No one can stay mad at her forever, friend, not even you." _


	4. Trips and tournaments

Trips and tournaments

Once the six masters resumed to their daily training in the famous Training room, Xiang was able to observe them on a small bench. She had no clue how or why she came, and her excuse of 'running away' seemed pretty pathetic. The actual truth was mind-blowing; she was running from a being that she didn't even remember.

Feeling slightly dizzy from her thoughts and the six masters' acrobatic and combat skills, Xiang figured that a small nap was legal fro 'intruding' guests. She hopped off the bench, gave one last wistful look at the Furious Five and Po, and began her search for a spare resting place.

As she snuck from pillar to pillar near the palace's front entrance, a soothing sound reached her saucer-like ears. It lifted a whole chunk of stress off her chest, and a content smile began to spread across her face.

"A flute," she whispered sleepily. And soon, the red panda's eyes began to grow heavy, and she didn't even notice how much she was drifting off.

_Thirty years ago…._

Zhong Province was at its greatest; discounts were captivating dozens of villagers, their population was absolutely superior, and the province was recently crowned leader of the legendary luxury stays. Of course, the citizens of Zhong had three very useful cards to play in the game of fortune; wood, music and good-looking people. As vain as it was, young and old tourists and travelers were ready for the ride. Sadly, not every parent could agree to these terms.

"Baba, I'll be back before you know it," Xiang whined with a feminine pout. "Besides, I'm twenty years old and live my own roof for spirits' sake! And all I need is directions and the place's name-"

"You call that cheap squared hut your home," Boqin interrupted his daughter with a teasing tone. "Xiang, I love you, but you wouldn't last_ two days_ in-"

"Why not?" She felt ready to confront his distrust in her. "I cook my _own_ meals, take my _own_ clothes to the neighborhood well, and I have my _own_ job at the Daiyu Diner-"

"Yes, yet your leopard friend seems suspicious."

"Her name is Ming Zhu," Xiang said curtly. "And she's inviting me to join in Zhong arena's one-hundredth anniversary of the Kung Fu's birth!"

This made the weary, hazel-eyed red panda turn from his daily taxes to face his headstrong daughter. "Kung Fu's birthday, huh? It's been that long…."

"Yes, Baba." Xiang observed her father's fanatic face and sighed. "If you want, you can come to meet Master Oogway-"

Boqin frowned in agitation. "How'd you-"

"Sleep talking," Xiang smirked. "And that detailed scrolls that are still stored in the attic."

Gritting his teeth, Boqin stared at his grown and only child with a hint of regret. MeiXiang Zhu was his only child and only relation, besides the common one or two neighbors from a sympathizing social club. She was born only a couple of months before Boqin's marriage with her mother, Yan Mei Yue-Zhu.

Yan Mei Zhu was, according to Boqin the only seal of his heart and yet the only thorn in his skull. She was always so sly but in such a crafty and practical way. He met her on a family trip to the Northern mountains at about his daughter's present age. Boqin immediately knew that she belonged with him, ever since he met her eyes. One was jungle green like Xiang's and one the other eye, the left, was a metallic shade of copper. It always seemed to glow in the moonlight, and it continued to watch him every night of insomnia.

Yet after Xiang was born, the two lovebirds slowly began to consider their positions. He was and always had been a secret weapon for Master Oogway in desperate times and a wealthy trade analyzer in Ling Council; she, on the other hand, was a penniless street performer who made a living out of the many contacts she'd earned in her life. Boqin would point out that Yan Mei was missing a suitable career, and she'd grow temperamentally defensive to take their daughter away from him and continue living her original life.

Being the realistic parent, Boqin had to let her leave in her steaming fury but without Xiang. He heard after Xiang's third birthday that Yan Mei disappeared to the Northern cities without a trace, and he never had seen or heard of his free-willed wife again. And as for his daughter, Boqin left her with the tragic but logical belief that her mother was dead; it was better than having his free-willed mother meet his equally free-willed daughter face to face. The pain of a sudden confrontation was too much for him to handle at his age and times of stress.

"Baba?" His daughter's cheerful voice brought him back to reality.

"I cannot accompany you, Xiang. Even if I can't help but be curious, my duty of continuing trade-"

"-Shall no be ignored nor delayed," Xiang finished with a grin. "Okay, then I guess the touring artist can come in our house…"

"Excuse me?"

As if one cue, Xiang opened their door for a lovely, dark-grey eyed snow leopard. Ming Zhu Chen was the most timid cat the red pandas had ever known. Ever since day care, the snow leopard hid herself in her artwork and barely spoke to anyone other than Xiang. They met and became instant friends over a silly argument over which teacher was the best to paint; their bond always stayed inseparable ever since. Xiang adored how MingZhu was kind but also somewhat of a people's person. It was no surprise that she was able to negotiate a business trip with her ill-tempered rodent boss.

And since this rodent, Mr. Fa, the owner of Daiyu Diner, requested for a loyal employee to seek a more outstretched location for business and chose Xiang, Ming's festival idea at Zhong Province was a golden choice.

"Hey MZ," Xiang greeted with a friendly bow, and MingZhu bowed as well.

"Good evening, Mr. Zhu," MingZhu chirped. "My attendant is willing to depart for Zhong this evening or early in the morning. It's your choice."

"Is the attendant attractive," Xiang asked absentmindedly, not noticing her father's disapproving look.

MingZhu wiped her paws on the straw welcome mat and scowled. "Maybe for a passing fan of obnoxious birds. That rooster is so arrogant, narrow-minded, and-and stubborn!"

"Then why's he going with you," Boqin asked.

She adjusted the leather strap of her handmade, dark brown bag and took out a palm mirror to review her features. "Yuan is the key of this entire trip, sir. He's Mr. Fa's friend and performs at Zhong's most famous diner, the 'Mingle Meet.' And _that's _where we'll discuss DD's new location on dinner, Xiang."

Xiang's jaw automatically dropped to the ground. "You never EVER said ANYTHING about FORMAL OCCASIONS!"

Her friend giggled and shrugged. "Sorry about that. Does that mean that you want Yuan and I to pick you up tomorrow morning?"

_On a deserted road the next morning….._

"Get out of the road, sucker!"

The red panda groaned in defeat. Maybe leaving at night _was _a better option! When Xiang first woke up, she had to deal with her father's constant rules of the road, (even when she had to drag a petty wagon of a petty rooster.) Then the rooster friend of MingZhu's, Yuan, kept complaining about how his poultry perm was frizzing for the first hour of the trip. Aside from all this, she didn't even have breakfast yet! And now out of all odds, the trio's trip was being interrupted by some lunatic!

Yuan hopped off the bird-made wagon and squinted at the calm figure. But with one look, Yuan flopped one the dusty road and flat on his stomach.

"Thanks stranger," Xiang complimented the approaching stranger. "If only I could-" The red panda's eyes widened at the face of the stranger and the stupidity of her words. The stranger on the road was the wise Grandmaster Oogway, who invented Kung Fu and had and still continued to raise heroic masters for centuries. Back home, her father and his fickle friends always had tales to share about the phenomenal masters, especially the ones at the mysterious Jade Palace.

She squirmed a little under his powerful but fatherly emerald eyes. "Sir….uh…"

"Good morning, young ones," Oogway saluted MingZhu in her timid state and Yuan in his hard-headed state. "I believe that you three are heading to Zhong Province, from the fancy clothes in your supplies. Both females flushed a little, yet Yuan simply blinked carelessly.

"Young child." Oogway gazed at Xiang fondly. "You remind me of a dear old friend of mine who once helped me father some of our most recent masters. He was as seemingly shy as you, but nonetheless, he could've passed as a true master."

Suddenly, the wise turtle flipped over Xiang with ease and tried to trip her from behind. With unexpected reflexes, Xiang twirled an extra wrap dress, swung it in a nearby tree, and pulled herself up on the tree's thickest branch.

Smiling knowingly, Oogway viewed the startled Xiang. "Yes, that friend of mine had similar abilities but without dresses. He used a blanket. Good day, Xiang, children." As he strolled off, Oogway left a small, crumpled scroll with a jade gem seal.

"Crazy reptile," Nua grumbled.

MingZhu eyed her friend in the tree with a hint of jealousy. "I didn't know that you and Mr. Grand 'mystery master' _knew _each other!"

"We don't." She hopped off the swaying tree with undetected grace. "He just….knew my name…"

"Gee, I wonder!" Yuan put on a sarcastic grin that imitated Oogway's. "'_My friend was exactly like you, young one.' _ He has obviously gone down hill just because you flipped…well, it _was_ pretty odd that you knew how to-….Anyway, it's just common sense; how gullible _are_ you mammals?"

"Let's resume the road trip," Xiang briskly chirped. She didn't like where this conversation was going at all, and it seemed best to drop it before a stench of tension reached her nose.

With one look at the road before her, Ming Zhu noticed Oogway's scroll. She marched up to it, opened it nervously, and gasped slightly. "Yuan, you crazy bird! This is an invitation to the one-hundredth tournament that we're going to!"

Xiang attempted to sneak a peak of the tiny scroll. "But why's that so-"

"It also gives us three reserved spots in the tournament! And it isn't stealing because, well, he would leave a note for a girl that he complimented in the arts, right? It's just too much of a coincidence to doubt."

"I don't know. Do you think you, Yuan, and I really could-"

"I am in a class of receiving greatness, _not_fighting for greatness," Yuan snapped. "Besides, you two slackers are supposed to be pulling my wagon ride-"

"Stuff it, Yuan. Give us a sec." Xiang leaned to whisper in MingZhu's perked ears. "Is it really worth it? Baba might-"

"You'd be great at it, Xiang. And I'm up for it. It seems very promising and-" MingZhu paused at one drawing. "Xiang…" Her eyes narrowed mischievously, and a giggle escaped her lips.

"What now, MZ?" Her feline friend withdrew the scroll to her.

"Check out this one student. Here's a guy that's finally near your height, aside from your dad!"

If Xiang wasn't curious, she would've ignored the scroll that lead to her changed and revolted life. However, fate can sometimes demolish your chance of life over love, especially when a female diner waitress blushes over a striking picture of a handsome male master who's her species.

**Boqin- senior respect**

**Mei- beautiful**

**Yan Mei- flattering**

**Yue- moon**

**Zhu- red, scarlet, vermillon**

**Daiyu- black jade**

**Fa- to issue forth**

**MingZhu- bright pearl**

**Chen- morning**

**Yuan- original**

**Ling- spiritual**

**Zhong- honest**

**I hope this isn't **_**too**_** confusing! Review, please!**


	5. Secrets and Security

Secrets and Security

**This is based on the Secrets of the Masters DVD from Dreamwork's. **

_Present day…._

"Hey! Hey! Xiang!"

The red panda's eyes fluttered open to a panicking giant panda. "Master Shifu would've FLIPPED if he saw you nap right now."

"Sorry, Po. A girl's gotta sleep once in a while, even when she's 'intruding' the Gem Palace."

"_Jade_ Palace."

Xiang let out a slow yawn and scanned the empty training room."Yep. How long was I out?"

"Everyone's eating lunch. Luckily, Shifu is in his meditating phase right now."

"No offense to your master or anything like that, but he seems like one of those homebodies who never takes breaks."

Po shrugged but then visibly brightened up at a new idea. "Say, would you like to meet the rest of us?"

"Well, may-"

"OH MAN! The Furious Five are the best! I _always_ wanted to be a tour guide for these legends and-" Po's smile melted with pure shock. "Stirred soup! THE MUSEUM!"

Inching away from the panda, Xiang coughed a little. "_What_ museum?"

"My plan is to get Tigress, you know the tiger with bright orange fur, stripes, amber eyes that can turn ruby red-"

"I get the picture."

"Right….well Mantis, too, the insect, is included. The four of us, including you, can access to the Jade Palace's new historic museum. Maybe if you came, you'd learn a bit about us."

Even when this idea seemed rather exciting to Xiang, she was worried about one setback in the plan. "Are we even _allowed_ to go?"

Po just gave her puppy dog eyes that could awe the straight faced, and Xiang knew it would be pointless to argue. Also, it wasn't like she'd loose her mind and sleep on this excursion.

_That late evening….._

"I find that I am not exaggerating at all when I say that Po, this plan got dumped."

For a brief moment in the new museum, Xiang, Tigress, and Mantis were silent and awkward. Apparently, Po had stretched the truth about this being an 'emergency' to Tigress and Mantis.

Growling, Tigress approached the giddy panda. "Good night, Po." She strolled off with the poker faced Mantis on her right shoulder.

"Come on! Why go to sleep right now when we're right here with all this-" Po gasped loudly, and Xiang had to giggle at his enthusiasm. "The sarcophagus of Su Wu!"

"Su what," Xiang piped.

"Wu!"

"Who's Su," Tigress asked.

"I have no clue," Mantis replied.

"Wait. You don't know about the Wu Sisters?" He gazed at the three in disbelief. With one shrug from a confused tigress, Po continued. "They were the most infamous criminals in all of China."

"Hm." Xiang viewed the gleaming, golden statue of a crocodile, ox, and rhino as one team. "Who are these guys? They must be pretty special."

"Master Croc, Master Storming Ox, and Master Thundering Rhino," Tigress replied slowly. "You've never heard of them?"

"Guess not."

"Uh huh. Now who wants to hear about how they met? It all started long ago…"

One particular person had entered Shifu's mind while in a much needed slumber; FengHuang.

Before she was banished by Master Oogway, the Eurasian eagle owl was famous for her beauty but also her teasing shrewdness. With her team, the Furious Five, she'd tease his lack of emotion. Yet the two people that were not on the team and teased the most were Junjie for his ill temper, and Master Chao for being too 'goody.'

His memory amazed him. For Shifu could've sworn that ever since those nightmares began to plague him, his past memories were beginning to clear from the fogs of his mind.

_Thirty years ago….._

"Ladies and gentleman," Master Chao boomed in the huge, circular tournament arena of villagers and prepared warriors. "It is my greatest honor to be hosting the one-thousandth tournament of Kung Fu history. Now you all know the rules; please silence your vocal spasms at a minimum, do not litter, leave with your kin if they get fussy, respect the warriors, two emergency exits can be found on the sides of the arena in the the event of one, and please; enjoy what fate has to offer on this spectacular day! I am proud to present the legendary Grandmaster Oogway!"

Everyone in the roaring tournament clapped and cheered for the beloved turtle master. He stood tall with a mysterious but heart-warming presence. "Let's party!" Oogway chuckled after his decree, and the audience followed with an equal amount of humor.

Meanwhile in the third row west of Master Oogway, Xiang was beaming and anxiously gripping MingZhu's left arm. "You're a wonderful friend."

The snow leopard smiled warmly and handed her her wooden telescope. "I know it's the one-thousandth and not the one-hundredth, yet I also believed that we would need this even one of the front rows. Sneak a peak before big brag bird here hogs it. This place sure is packed!"

Xiang happily agreed and grinned at the close-up view of the warriors. There were the five older Furious Five members; Master Flying Rhino, Master Viper, Master Dog, the twin Master Weasels, (they were able to get in under strict terms,) and Master Chao. From what MingZhu has told her and from what she'd heard from gossiping villagers, these masters were going to depart for their own living in different part for the sake of peace. They wouldn't retire, but only protect China from where they chose to live or originally came from.

The other younger animals who were closer to the stage were contestants. One was a sly-looking fox, one was a large elephant, one was a stunning owl, one was a snow leopard. (who Xiang knew for a fact caught MingZhu's attention,) and the red panda she saw on Master Oogway's jade scroll.

"Well MingZhu if we have the invites," she hopped off her small seat. "We might as well-"

"You go on, girl."

"MingZhu!"

"I-I think I'll just stay in the crowd. You go try out without me."

"Yuan's already with them and on full bragging alert!" Xiang huffed a little, as she plopped next to her best friend. "Look, remember when you convinced me to try out for endurance camp and I agreed? Well sure I had nightmares for weeks over their breakfast servings and disgusting bathrooms, yet I had fun. And I'm warning you; missing out on a chance to kick butt or behind or whatever is NOT good. Please, PLEASE come out and _try out with me_!"

The snow leopard looked at Xiang and the Master Oogway. With one scowl, she reluctantly stood up. "Fine. But I'm only doing this because I know _you're _responsible for _any_ of the severe injuries we receive here!"

Xiang nodded, and the girls were soon in the line of hopeful young warriors. She noticed that almost all of them were panting, sweating, or even swaying with a look of sickness. The worst guy was the elephant, who's face was sickly green and slippery with sweat. Meanwhile, the red fox, the snow leopard, and the red panda were sweating as well, but only slightly. And finally, Yuan was arguing with the pretty owl about who had the greatest wing span! The only good thing Xiang thought they accomplished with that stupid discussion was that they made her less nervous with it.

"You pompous fool!" The female owl ruffled her silver-grey wings and winked at the crowd. "My wings are fit for a divine phoenix and are!"

"You're fooling yourself, hun," Yuan chuckled. "I may not be a fly time bird, but at least I'm useful."

"In what way?"

"In getting your little ego and face out of my life for good! "

The owl's face turned bright red in fury. She would've pecked the triumphant smirk off of Yuan's face if two snow leopards didn't hold her back.

"Easy FengHuang," the male one grinned charmingly. "Ladies like you shouldn't fight before tournaments-"

The owl only snarled at Yuan. "I could say the same for you, you reckless-"

"Please." MingZhu quickly attempted to stretch the truth. "He's a business partner of mine. Excuse his lack of manners."

FengHuang let out a sour laugh. "My dear, he lacks _rationality_. Some males _here_ lack manners. Speak with them, and you'll see."

Suddenly. FengHuang roughly released herself from the snow leopards, making them trip and hold each other for support. MingZhu flushed a little under the other snow leopard's intense golden eyes, and he looked equally embarrassed. That is until he regained his composure.

"She sees," he teased. "I think she gets the picture."

"I'm MingZhu."

"Rong."

"You, um, can let go now."

"Oh barf on barf!" Junjie eyed the two with a sneer. "Why now in public, Rong?"

"Can't we all just relax? The event hasn't even started."

"I have to agree with my friend's feline friend here," Xiang admitted shyly. "It'll all work-"

"You don't even know the first thing about Kung Fu! We, however, are trained students that have dedicated and still are dedicating our lives to learning all the secrets, meditations, styles, legends-"

"Pipe down Junjie," the red panda groaned near him. "I just want to get this all over with."

"She should know the boundary of this tournament between villagers and real warriors, Shifu."

"It's not a big deal," Xiang defended herself. "I can still learn up to your levels. I just won't learn them overnight."

"Get off my back, miss-"

"Xiang."

"Like it alters the Sacred Pool of Tears."

"You just can't be polite, huh Ju-" The red panda stopped in mid-sentence, as he stared at Xiang with a dropped jaw.

"What?" Xiang twitched her nose. "Do I perplex you?"

"Oh..no…Junjie-"

"Our tournament," Chao began, "will now accept its first contestant on the warrior's side; Warrior Xiaoli!"

The tall elephant next to Yuan adjusted his tan t-shirt and approached his first opponent; a water bull with gloomy, dark eyes. To both MingZhu and Xiang, he did quite well on his feet and using his turn as an extra hand. Yet when Xiang glanced at Junjie and Fenghuang, they looked like they were witnessing a disgusting mutant or renegade's act in pure hatred. The other three contestants wore neutral expressions, an expression that Xiang had yet to accomplish. Although, at least she wasn't staring at Xiaoli like Junjie and Fenghuang were.

Xiaoli received a six out of ten, slightly above average. Satisfied, he left for a brief breath break at the back entrance.

"It's kinda obvious that Xiaoli could've done better," FengHuang proclaimed; Rong shook his head at her with hidden amusement.

After Xiaoli, Nua, FengHuang, Rong, Junjie, MingZhu, Xiang battled through rings of consuming fire, opponents of foul breath, and random spooks. When she fought a skinny rattlesnake at the end, she cartwheeled over his coils and attempted to dodge his venomous bites. Xiang was almost bitten on the left ankle until she flipped backward and kicked his face. It would've been easier for her if they both weren't dodging poisonous darts that came from who knows where!

"I like your style," Rong complimented the now sweaty Xiang.

Junjie scoffed at both of them. "_What _style?"

"_My_ style," Xiang clarified smugly.

"Seriously though." The red panda gazed at Xiang. He'd never met a simple villager that could dodge poisonous bites and darts as skillfully as she did. Heck, he'd never admit it, but it took him nine months with Master Oogway's help to correctly dodge poisonous attacks.

"You're not a student from any of the various training schools," he continued. "I would've known."

"And what's the name of this know-it-all teddy," Xiang challenged playfully.

"Shifu."

"Hm." She cocked her small head, and pursed her lips. Shifu looked like the kind of guy Xiang would nickname pie; he seemed sweet and rather good-looking, but also very mysterious. How was she supposed to know what he felt about the world around him? What secrets lied in those sky blue eyes?

"It sounds like a type of Tai Chi song."

Shifu felt himself smirk. "I think_ that _was a compliment to an opponent."

"I'm too lazy and tired to care. Do you know how hard it is to hurl around a rooster with the mindset of some puppet or fake immortal? I'm sorry about the argument's delay, but I obviously just want to get this whole trip over with."

"Really?"

"I swear on my aching feet."

This made Shifu smirk again. Only this time, Nua and Junjie noticed.

"Do my eyes deceive me," the rooster whispered to the red fox. "Or is your warrior friend hitting on a fluffed diner waitress that's absolutely clueless about all of this?"

"You're one to talk," FengHuang hissed. "Mind your own friends."

"_What_ friends?"

Yuan's exasperated question made Rong nudge MingZhu teasingly, and Xiang rolled her eyes at the rooster's mood.

After Chao's next and duller introduction, Master Flying Rhino took the center stage with a broad smile at his first obstacle of dangerous wasps.

"I bet he'll be stung _at leas_t five times for not dodging properly," Junjie told Shifu.

"Junjie, you may be a great expert, but this master has been dodging forces for…"

"Twenty four years?" Xiang remembered her father's ancient-looking calendar of various drawn warriors. One was a fierce rhino with the number twenty-something and a chart of techniques. She simply studied them in her father's spare guest room in amusement.

Assuming she guessed wrong from Shifu's now pale face, Xiang decided to explain herself. "Look, my father-"

"Master Flying Rhino is_ twenty-one_," FengHuang hissed from behind. "And yet, your assumption was terribly close. How'd you know that? Rong, I'm afraid that this villager's a spy. Look shorty-"

"She is NOT a spy," MingZhu stood up for her best friend.

"She's too wishy-washy," Yuan added jokingly. "It's kind of obvious that she'd never have the guts to pull it off."

"Oh, am I?," Xiang shot back.

"Okay," Shifu snapped irritably. "Listen, there _was_ a way you knew, and I'm-"

"Citizens of Zhong Province," Master Oogway announced. "I believe the next generation of warriors have been chosen."

Each pair of eyes never left Master Oogway's gentle face, well, except for _Oogway's closed _eyes. He slowly approached the eight anxious animals with calm steps. Ming Zhu subconsciously put a trembling paw on Rong's left shoulder, and he held it close subconsciously. Junjie, meanwhile, shifted uneasily, and Xiaoli glanced at different places in the arena to distract himself from the pressure. FengHuang breathed in and out, and even Nua began to twitch slightly. All the while, Xiang was holding Shifu's left hand without realizing it; he didn't have the heart to let her hand go. He had bigger tasks to worry about or even give his full attention to, at least at that time.

_Present day…._

On a regular early morning at the Jade Palace, Shifu would've scolded and very possibly punish a student that trespassed a setting that was not reserved for his entertainment. But since today was not the day to deal with twitching, scowling, or foul morning moods, the Dragon Warrior would be spared from his master's ill mood for now.

After Master Shifu had heard the tried version of the reluctant Master Crane's side of the story, he entered the new, peach-scented museum in a relatively calm mood.

Po, the fanatic and prime suspect, gasped and dashed to Shifu. "Wow, guys!" Po glanced at the dumbfounded Tigress and Mantis. "Look at this statue of Shifu; it's so life-like!" He put a fuzzy paw on the stern red panda's chest. "You can actually _feel _the stress coming out of him-"

"Panda," Shifu snapped sharply but quickly drew back at the sight of a sleeping red panda nearby.

Xiang's light tan fur glistened, as the dim rays of sunshine kissing her beautiful face. Her pointy nose twitched a little, and Shifu felt the urge to laugh at how….settled she looked of the sarcophagus of Su- wait.

"What is she doing on the-"

"She just SLEPT," Po pouted. "And didn't hear my story. Can you BELIEVE THAT?"

This made the small master chuckle light. "It _is _early in the morning and-" He turned to Tigress and Mantis. "_You _may go."

They bowed respectfully and left, as Po laughed sheepishly. "I guess I should-"

"Repair the ceiling, Po." Shifu handed the giant panda the ceiling tool and cement. "I expect the hole you made in the ceiling to be sealed in twenty minutes. Don't disappoint me."

As he skillfully leapt on the sarcophagus to pick up the sleeping Xiang bridal style and leapt out of the museum with Po's 'entrance', his mind was very much distracted by the nightmares that he'd tried to solve before. When Shifu finally sat her on a spare room's bed, he began to wonder why did he pick her up and carry her here when he simply could've woken her up back in the museum? Aside from that, that silly Dragon Warrior always was a terrible judge from observations. Who knew what he was thinking about his master?

"Must find her," Xiang moaned in her sleep. "Must find her…wait!" This puzzled but also interested Shifu. He leaned in to where he could hear her exact words from her mumbling.

"Mim zoo's a bad judge, or is she? No…can't glove …." Shifu's eyes dimmed in disappointment. But when he turned to the exit, a soft hand found his left hand. "Pee du, you're the best….the b-best…it's from your will…"

"Xiang-"

"Stay out of REACH!" Xiang was now panting dangerously heavy, as if she was suffocating. "I can't let you; I WON't let you…"

Deep within his skull, chest, and emotional part of his being, Shifu knew that he'd heard these desperate but inviting calls before. He suddenly saw flashes of a pouring storm, several wounds, a lotus night, several tears, a pool of blood, and an image of himself running an avoiding a very agonizing secret….

"WAKE UP!"

Xiang yelped and instantly woke up. Her forehead was glistened with sweat. "Don't go, don't go, don't-…..Sorry, master."

"Control your habits," Shifu ordered. "And maybe, _just maybe_, you'll stay.

Forgetting that he still was holding a being, Shifu exited the guest room. But before he could reach the bunkhouse door, a small hand tugged his right sleeve.

Blushing slightly, Xiang coughed loudly. "Does that mean maybe, _just maybe_, you'll put me down now?"

**Just to let readers know, this takes place **_**after**_** the sequel.**

**Rong- honor**

**Xiaoli- intellectual **


	6. Melodies and medicine

Melodies and Medicine

That night, the legendary Jade Palace had succumbed to the endless starry night sky. Stars scattered the deep blue hues of night's blanket like enlightening freckles. It was truly a night for companions.

Under this marvelous sky, Tigress was meditating and reviewing the events of the past surprising days. The 'intruder', Xiang, seemed like an average, but small and possibly crazy village girl to the feline. Xiang actually looked twenty-three, since she had no hints of wrinkles and was quite skinny for a red panda. Yet they soon learned from her that she was actually _fifty_-three. After meeting and observing Xiang, Tigress began to notice how she spoke to everyone and how helpful she was around the house with neglected chores. Sure, Xiang seemed very mysterious or sheepish at times, but never at an extreme degree. The red panda puzzled Tigress, and the striped feline wasn't too fond of being puzzled.

But aside from her own point of view, Master Shifu always acted noticeably different around Xiang; so _that_ could've said something.

"Hi Tigress." The striped feline grinned slightly at the sight of a pair of heart-warming jade green eyes. "What're you doing? Meditating? Observing?"

"Both I guess, Po. But do answer this question for me; do you notice anything…odd or strange about the intrude-Xiang?"

"Other than she's really….quiet….I guess….not."

For the sake of a detected headache from what Po called 'overly thinking', Tigress decided to drop the subject. She turned to speak more to Po, only to find his warm breath tickle her nose. They both flushed from how closed their faces were to each other.

"Um, uh,…" Po staggered slightly back, revealing a hint of disappointment in his eyes. "I guess I should leave you with your awesome skills and-"

"Po. Stay, please?" Her soft, begging tone surprised both of them, and Tigress had to glance away from Po's embarrassed and cute expression.

Did she just think Po was 'cute'?

"Why'd you come out here, Dragon Warrior?"

Po sat to her right on the small hill slope and sighed contently. "I have never seen a sky like this! It's so crisp, free, and soothing."

"And worth sharing," Tigress added. "I once meditated under a similar night, when I was near the end of my eighth year."

"Nine years old?"

She nodded with certainty, but her glowing ruby eyes never left the beautiful sky. "Of course, some…elements make moments like this more valuable. Po, we've suffered, we've cherished, we've fought wars, and we've brought peace. I should be one hundred percent content and happy. Why_ aren't _I?"

The giant panda stared at his comrade and best friend, who had slightly hung her head in shame and doubt. 'Come on buddy,' his mind coached him optimistically. 'Stop drooling over her and comfort her! She needs a friend!'

'But I'm not so great at comforting others,' Po argued with himself.

'Stop focusing on _you_, and focus on _her_! And quit the dreamy look, you goof!'

Wiping some traits of drool off his chin and inching to the now silent tigress, he held her right paw. "Tigress, what's wrong? What's the one thing you're missing? You've got several friends, a great master, Kung Fu, which you know you're amazing at-"

"I'm missing something _very personal_, Po," Tigress explained. "And I do not think you'd want to know-"

"Don't give me that! We're _best friends! _Who taught me how to be more hard core? And no offense, but who made you, _less_ hard core? Tell me. I don't care how odd it might be. If it's bothering you, I'm willing to help you through it, Tigress."

His sincere words assured Tigress. "Po, it's about my, er, relationship status….and…."

"Oh." Po now understood why she was taking this awkwardly. "Gee, that's great and swell! Tigress, a lot of guys probably have had or have feelings for you! You are very beautiful, kind, smart, strong, sensu-" Po stopped in mid sentence, and his face was growing hotter by every passing second. '"-al. No! NO! NO! NO! That came out VERY wrong-"

A warm, furry head captivated Po's left shoulder. "It's alright," Tigress murmured sweetly. "I don't mind at all."

The reply was so simple and yet so free and meaningful. It touched Po's huge heart, and the bait was sought.

The two Kung Fu warriors met each other's eyes, and chemistry zapped their conscious beings. Tigress put a paw on his soft neck, as he put two paws on her waist. But before their moment of moonlight bliss could've started at the rhythm of their lips, someone coughed behind them.

Annoyed, Tigress reluctantly released Po to confront the stranger who interrupted them. Yet, they both didn't expect to see their four comrades in ropes and imprisoned by several beastly gorillas and python bandits.

"Go on, buddy. It was just getting good. We'll give you a minute or so!" The biggest gorilla in the group chuckled monstrously. He was mammoth, and the only visible traits on his body that night were his orange hammer and bright yellow eyes.

"No thanks?"

"Um, hello?" Mantis shook the small, stained cage he was in impatiently. "Painful memories are settling back IN! KICK these GUYS!"

"I got this, Tigress, everybody. Get ready to EMBRACE THE FEET OF FURY!" Po kicked, whirled, jabbed, and flipped countless bandits, and Tigress did her fair share of graceful and effortless attacks beside him.

"MONKEY!" Po snatched a dagger from a random gorilla and threw it, knowing that every bandit would dodge it. The crafty primate caught it with ease in his tail and slashed through his and Crane's thick ropes. Because their two other comrades were caged, Crane swooped to steal the keys from a clueless gorilla bandit nearby and attempted to unlock his friends' iron cages. To avoid the bandits poking at them, Crane cawed for Monkey, and Viper was there to warn any bandits that tried to attack from behind them.

"And this is why Mei Ling doesn't come here to visit you, huh Crane," Monkey teased with a giggle. "Too many random, smelly bandits that wake you up late at night when you're sleeping."

The avian looked flustered for a second, yet he soon resumed to the rescue and fight with a shake of his head.

A few yards from them, Tigress and Po joined hands. Then, Po flipped Tigress back and forth rhythmically, as she kicked several attacking bandits in different directions.

"AWESOME!" Po beamed enthusiastically at the strong tigress next to him. "We have GOT to try those EPIC moves on TEMUTAI'S SOLDIERS! Shifu would just-" His face showed concern, even as he punched a staggering gorilla in the gut from behind. "Tigress, where's Shifu and Xiang?"

This made Tigress almost paused from her work at snatching a dozen python tails in full swing. "I don't know." She clawed one python, after it almost bit her with his savage-looking fangs.

_At the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom….._

Xiang was nibbling on a spare, juicy reach and gazed at the night sky. It was truly a magnificent sight, and she could've seem to sleep that night. Besides, it was also an excellent place for Xiang to talk to herself without looking like a complete idiot.

"It would have been better if I had one memory, almost _any_ memory of joy. Or better yet, a person, place item! The suspense is agonizing!" She layer back on the earthy dirt, feeling like she was just a empty shell or figure without a meaning or purpose to fulfill."I want a memory worth living for."

Suddenly, a melody came into her mind, and Xiang hummed it absentmindedly. She failed to realize that she had an audience of another red panda. "That tone," Shifu wondered out loud, wearily.

"Oh! Sorry, I was just, um , bored and recollecting the day's events. So if you'll just excuse me-"

"I heard screaming," Shifu explained to her. "Or possibly, even roaring. And I thought that you might've known about it."

"Nope. By the way, do you know where the kitchen is?"

"Why on _Earth_ do you need a meal at _this _hour?"

"I skipped," Xiang blurted out. "I skipped dinner. And I heard Mantis say there were leftovers of Po's Wednesday waffles-"

"We're masters," he corrected her. "Mantis is _Master_ Mantis, as I am _Master _Shifu."

"Okay, thanks. I mean thank-you, 'master' Shifu." She randomly used a piece of clothing to flip herself on a not so near twenty foot tree. But before she could leap to the peach tree nearest to them to get another peach, Shifu flipped on the swaying tree she was on and blocked her path. He eyed the piece of clothing, a stained teal dress. "Tell me how you just did that."

"What? Eat a peach?"

"NO, that…..flip with that wrap dress. I do admit that it doesn't remind me or compare to previous techniques, But because I noticed how balanced this technique was, are you or have you ever been a master, student, or trained warrior?"

"Never." It was mostly a waste to answer him, since she _was amnesic._ "But from past speculations, I'm afraid that I'm not so sure."

Puzzled and searching for more clues, his sky blue eyes found an odd looking silver steel bracelet now on her left wrist.

"Where'd you get that bracelet? How long have you worn it?"

"Um, I just found it today." She covered her left wrist, as if she was protecting it from a threat. "It's really nothing."

"It's clearly something when denial is seen or heard."

Xiang pursed her lips and stepped back. "I can't let you see it."

Shifu scowled at her. What _was_ it with women and their jewelry? "I simply request that you let me see it. You don't even have to remove it."

"It just appeared out of nowhere, and it is from a very important person."

"Good gracious, child! How could you know so much about it when it just 'appeared out of nowhere _today_?"

"I don't _know_ _who_this person is," Xiang huffed. "But I have a very strong_ feeling_ that he or she's important enough to not betray."

Suddenly, both red pandas slowly began to grow more calm. They plopped down on the peaceful hill's ground and began discussing the significant matters at hand.

"I remember a trip, far away from…someone….there was endless music and…ugh! It's all just _one big blobby blur_! I've been having daydreams and-"

"Nightmares?"

Xiang's jungle green eyes met Shifu's sky blue eyes; both red pandas suddenly realized that a new piece of the puzzle had been found.

_Back to the Furious Five at the front of the Jade Palace…._

Only four pythons and five gorillas, including the pompous leader that sprained Monkey's ankle, got away. And there were at least sixty bandits at first! Nevertheless, any number of bandits that were left in the village or ant part of China and not brought to justice were threats.

"Crane fly over the village to see if any bandit is still present," Tigress ordered.

The again quickly nodded and began to soar across the starry skies in search of ruthless bandits.

"What a work out hey guys," Mantis joked.

"It hasn't even began, Mantis. But Tigress." Viper slithered towards Tigress. "What about Monkey's ankle? Do you need me to do anything?"

"A cool cloth from the bath house would be a start," she suggested. "Just in case you're wondering, they're on the top row on your left of the showers."

"Thanks." Viper set off for the cloth, leaving Tigress to deal with nine tied up but annoying bandits, an injured primate, and a panda that had his times of troublemaking.

"What was _this_ all about," Po asked Monkey, who was gripping his left ankle.

"I have absolutely no idea. But buddy, keep this just between us; the crook that sprained my ankle said something pretty rude about Shifu."

Po checked to make sure that Tigress' eyes were still on the beaten bandits and ushered Monkery to continue. The primate gulped, and his earth brown eyes darkened from the serious threat. He leaned into Po's left ear to whisper the insult. After it was said, Monkey found it very hard not to laugh at Po's dumbfounded expression. His jade free eyes were the size of pots, and his jaw dropped to the tip of his chest.

"Oh man…."

"I know. Who knew a gorilla could be that foul-"

"NO!" Po gawked at Monkey. "The part that gets me the most is Shifu has a _girlfriend_! That's like if dumplings could spit fire!"

"Po, we don't even know for sure-"

"What are you two discussing?"

"No, nothing!" Po hated to lie to Tigress, yet Monkey was begging for him not to even give their comrade a clue with his eyes.

"Po, I don't care how odd it might be." She gave a gentle grin to the nervous panda and only him. "It's just like you said; we're friends, and we trust each other."

Po fought the urge to apologize to Monkey or even point out how true her point was. With a gulp and a shrug, Po asked Tigress, "do you think Shifu had any, well, enemies or possibly girlfriends as a kid? I mean, uh, I'm just spit bawling here and- Oh gosh! Bandits are after Shifu, Ti!"

_Thirty years ago…._

The 'Mingle Meet' was booming with business on one extravagant Friday night. Beefy pigs and timid goats served plates of tangy fruits, thick pastas, and mouth-watering deserts. Multicolored lanterns lightened the roofed diner. Entertainment was provided by various but approved instrumentalists, singers, dancers, and even illusionists. Most to the guests that night were lucky villagers or snobby rich scribes or nobles thanks to the increase in payments that night. A night at the 'Mingle Meet' after a memorable tournament wasn't cheap; that's for sure. But one table, table seven to be exact, was reserved for the diner's managers, a goat and a small Chinese goose, and their special guest from Chen village, Master Dog.

Several guests turned with curiosity at the sound of newcomers. Five new masters entered the gaudy diner; Master Rong in a handsome navy vest and grey pants, Master Nua with a high beak and fiery red vest, Master FengHuang with purple eyeshadow and mascara around her deep blue eyes and a violet scarf for looks, Master Shifu in a handsome brown robe, and Master Xiang in her best formally packed lime kimono with pale yellow sandals. MingZhu and Xiaoli joined the group as well, only they decided to wear their regular clothes from the tournament.

"Some place," MingZhu commented to Xiaoli.

"I heard that they get at least six thousand new customers a year," Xiaoli pointed out enthusiastically.

"That's not surprising," Shifu agreed. "Since they sure do seem to know how to capture people's attention."

"As long as there's food and present bargains," Xiang informed the group with a smirk. "I'm happy and all's well."

Yuan's face scrunched up at her words. "Please, this place is probably a dump that uses dust from their kitchen cabinets as table pepper!"

"You insolent bird!" FengHuang fanned herself with a lovely wing. "You'll make me sick!"

"You made _me _sick at the tournament!"

"You're just an angry bird that was one point away from a grand owl," she bragged back. "Our judges just know where true talent comes from."

"It's obviously not in the owl's mouth," a hoggish voice told her.

"Taotie?" Shifu shook hands with the tannish warthog and grinned amiably. "Good to see you. How's business?"

"Hey squirt," Taotie greeted. "Where's Mr. fickle fox?"

"Junjie was too stressed to join."

"Or jealous of the newbies' skills," the warthog joked.

Shifu put a friendly arm on Xiang's shoulders. "This is Xiang."

"And I'm Yuan," Yuan yelped randomly.

"MingZhu." MingZhu smiled at Taotie.

"The more the merrier I suppose." Taotie then put a hoof on Shifu's shoulder. "Uh-it's not my decision, chief. Yet, women come and go. My wife's a charm I'd never trade. However, I had to go through fifteen other studs before I met her. As your friend, I advise you to take is slow on this pretty fox here."

"What? I'm not-"

"That's what they all say until they're put to 'the test.'" He scurried off before Xiang coughed to get Shifu's attention.

"Listen Shifu, I need to speak with you about this whole…'master' gig."

"Fire away," Shifu allowed earnestly.

"I didn't actually think that I'd actually win this status when I signed up…."

"Well, you clearly underestimated yourself."

"No, but MingZhu should've-"

"But she _didn't_. Don't act so modest; you_ did._"

"Please listen to me! I-"

"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN!" Every animal in the diner turned to the spunky, feminine announcer and hostess, a well-groomed rhinoceros with a mischievous grin. "I am Dr. R, your humble host for this fine evening! In honor of our visiting masters and new masters, the next Furious Five, a fellow friend from the famous Valley of Peace has provided a spectacular show for us! Please show your appreciation and give a warm hand to the 'Marvelous Missies!'"

Several animals clapped louder than most in hopes of a suitable performance. Xiang did as well, while eyeing the motionless managers at table seven. "Please guys. My managers-"

Four female figures leapt on four separate tables on different corners of the diner. The strange thing that Xiang happened to notice was their table was smack down in the middle of where the performers stood. When some lantern lights revealed the figures, most everyone was surprised to see a pretty and playful green-apple snake with beautiful blue eyes, a skinny snow leopard in a deep blue kimono, and a slim, flirty snow leopard with unleashed claws and in a midnight black kimono.

But the one that caught Xiang's attention the most was a stunning red panda who looked more pale than red or tan like most red pandas and wore a magenta kimono.

Dr. R, meanwhile, had one last introduction to make. "HERE THEY ARE; THE KITTIES, LIEN, and Y.M.!"

Thee snow leopard in black snapped her furry fingers to seize the audience's gossip.

(**Based on the song: 'Lady Marmalade' I love this song way too much! Original by: LABELLE, Inspired by version by: Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, and Pink; I do not own this song or its versions. Also, I'm aware that you may be confused with the time frame confusion. Forgive me for putting a present song in an ancient time.)**

1st Snow Leopard (SL): 'Hey sister, soul sister. Let me hear that flow sisters.'

ALL: Hey sister, soul sister, go sister, flow sister. Hey sister, soul sister, go sister, flow sister.'

YM: 'Lady Sister Bloom here at old 'Mingle Meet,' shorty was strutting the street.' The red panda grabbed a surprised Master Chao close. 'She said; Hey Chao. You wanna give it a go?'

They all flipped gracefully in the center, around the young masters' table.

ALL: 'Gitchy gitchy ya ya da da. Gitchy gitchy ya ya here. Mix and Mingle ta ta ya ya.'

YM: 'Hey old lovely Sister Bloom!'

(Pianists and drummers begin to play their parts.)

The two sisters embarrassed the modest MingZhu and Rong, while the striking red panda closed Shifu's dropped jaw.

ALL: 'Ooh, a girlfriends got to have bling to sing, yeah. Got to have bling to sing.'

The flirtatious snake slithered to Master Viper's table and stared at him from upside down. LIEN: 'While guys have fun, the girls' gotta stay as one, for they've already won!' (REST: 'Hey sister, soul sister, go sister, flow sister.')

LIEN: 'Who needs a driver on the wagon of fame?'

2nd SL: 'Come along to prove your time; love's a tricky game!' 

As they continued to prance around the other tables during the instrumental break and after they left the young masters, they finally were able to feel relaxed and out of the spotlight.

"Boy! That was too much attention," Rong sighed.

"I now have fur on my tongue," FengHuang squealed in distress.

"At least you don't have a trunk full," Xiaoli grumbled with a stuffed trunk. "I'm probably going to sneeze more often due to my lack of immunity to dander, guys."

The 'Marvelous Missies' song continued. 1st SL: 'Forgive me for my determination, but here's a trick for your dedication. Say the masters aren't so swell, weak in the knee or not doing well. We have just one solution for you. Are you ready for this? Cause here's SU WU!'

Out of the blue, a all four of the performers took out four gas bombs that produced thick grey smoke. Out of the smoke, a tall snow leopard leapt on table seven.

"So you numbskulls run this joint?" Su Wu laughed evilly and then darted her eyes around the now paralyzed crowd. "Listen up! My girls and I are in need of your masters young and old. I'm sure these little squats of managers can get that through their little heads, can you?" Su Wu picked up the fearful goat and tossed it into a trash bin, making her cackle.

Meanwhile, Xiang was just shocked at the scene being displayed for her. Everyone around her was completely paralyzed, even the strong masters! She almost fainted when she wiggled her toes and fingers. How did _she_ not get paralyzed? There was one little event that could've caused this.

When Xiang was almost eight years old, her father took her to get some sort of wired and concocted shot. It stung badly, but her father told her that it would help in times without motion.

Back then, she only assumed that he was addicted to his morning tea and had gone berserk. But now, she knew why he could've done all this.

The little dancer in a magenta kimono was her mother, the mother she assumed was dead.

But that was only one out of the two surprises she received at that moment. The other was a simple observation that provided hope, for Shifu was beckoning her to follow him from the diner's kitchen.

**Lien- beautiful **

**The only main characters that I own from either inspiration of Shifu's furious five team or from my own mind are MingZhu, Yuan, Xiaoli, Rong, Boqin, and Xiang. The others are either from the movies or the series.**


	7. Flaws and flutes

Flaws and Flutes

This was officially Xiang's fifth mental freak out session.

When she was a young squabbler, she remembered crying and/or throwing a tantrum twice in her life because her father practically spoiled her until she was ten years old. At thirteen, Xiang disobeyed her father by going to MingZhu's aunt's bachelorette party and was grounded for five weeks as the towel maid. Then finally at nineteen, she was caught redhanded in her act of borrowing MingZhu's makeup for her first and last date with a world class jerk.

Now, the famous new master and trained warrior, Shifu, was leading her out of a paralyzed set up.

"Okay then. I'm not a judge of important criminal settings, but THAT is worth a freaking out session in MY book!"

"Listen," Shifu huffed, apparently not so cheerful with the sudden break in either. "Do you know who that snow leopard was?"

"A villain with demonic eyes and needs a better introduction song."

"No! Su Wu; a famous female embezzler, thief, and occasional murderous."

"Well, isn't that uplifting and peachy cheek."

Shifu glared at her sternly. "Calm down, Xiang. We're already at least five meters from the diner. Su Wu's clan is famous for detecting scents in the air; we must cover our scent."

"One; I'm not worried." Xiang peeled a disgusting orange peel off her neck, as they entered a drenched alley. "I'm simply in freak out mode, not in terror mode. Two; I thought dogs did that kind of scent detecting thing."

"They do." Shifu unleashed a rope and flung its end on the top of a gloomy, abandoned temple. "However, cats have amazing senses and tend to follow dark alleys like this. We must switch from our locations as much as we can. That way, they'll be clueless as to where we specifically hide." Out of the blue, he grabbed Xiang by the waist with his left arm.

Pushing him roughly away, Xiang gave him an angry, startled look. "And _what_ was that?"

Shifu rolled his eyes at her actions. "I'm just trying to get you to the top!" He pointed to the temple in emphasis.

Blushing a little, Xiang chuckled sheepishly. "Heh, yeah yeah. Sure you were. I knew that all along! I was just- WOAH!" Shifu managed to fling them on top of the temple in one quick setting. Then, he repeated the same actions on ten other village huts. At the last stop, Xiang snatched his thin rope.

"Y'know. I know how you Kung Fu warriors can parade out of the blue with your parlor tricks or thin, flexible ropes and carry villagers out of alleys. But me, NOT so much!" She flung his rope to the ground; then, a sudden storm drenched the two red pandas and the now useless rope.

"HOW are WE supposed to escape the criminals?"

"Don't ask me, wise crack. Aren't you the one with all the practical ideas?"

_"You _threw the rope!"

"_You_ dizzied me into a sudden daze of huts and expected puke!_ Why_ did I even tag along with you? And why'd _you_ beckon me in the first place?"

"I actually would have been better with a paralyzed Rong," Shifu murmured bitterly. Then, he grew worried at the thought of his comrades and secret friends. "Speaking of our left team, you should go check on them. And if you can, retrieve them-"

"Listen, twinkle topper. I'm not going to get clawed by some psychotic old hags in a paralyzed and probably drunk diner. So you can just pipe down and lead before things get worse."

"I think they already have." Shifu pointed to a nearby band of skillful, leaping leopards who were coming their way. "Let's hurry before they see us."

Both red pandas hopped and scurried from rooftop to rooftop and building to building until they came to a somewhat deserted, earth green forrest of bamboo and thickets. Suddenly, screeching claws were heard, and Shifu dragged Xiang into a hidden cave.

"You said the immune one was HERE," a female leopard screeched in the distance.

"Hey, not many animals have been immune to my paralyzation dust. The only cure-"

"There is NO time for DISCUSSION! TROOP! Find the immune one; he or she is small, and I can smell him-or her. Find her in less than twenty-four hours before the paralyzation dust runs out in the cities we've passed and bring the animal to me."

"But _I'm_ leading this nutcase of a troop," the other, sharper voice argued irritably. "What's in it for _me_?" A rough push was heard, and someone crumpled in a huge thicket of thorns.

"Your reward," the snow leopard repeated venomously. "Your reward is life. Su Wu only took you in for your skills and beauty, munchkin! Of course, she'd always be able to find another short, visibly weak damsel. But until then, we're stuck with you. Find the animal, or your reward will be confiscated by her claws! Is that clear?"

After a brief silence, the troop of snow leopards jumped back to their previous location in Zhong Province.

"That wasn't pointless at all." Xiang stood up and stretched. "I think it's best I leave-"

"NO! I mean." Shifu coughed roughly. "We should head down to Gongmen city. I know someone who can help."

"I'll see you in the morning, straight shoot-" A ruffling sound in the forrest caught them both off guard. Then, a clawed bird soared in the stormy skies above, dove, and barely clawed Shifu in the shoulder.

"He's a paralyzed drone! Run!" They both sprained away from the now flock of threatening birds. Then, Xiang gripped onto a strong, spare bamboo shot and flung her and Shifu at a good distance. They both landed face down in a very small cave, so small that none of the birds could even put their talons in it. Once they left, Shifu breathed a sigh of relief, and Xiang laid her head on a smooth rock.

"Splendid! Several cities have paralyzed people, businesses are being shot down, and traitors are everywhere you turn!"

"Calm down Baba," Xiang teased sleepily. "I gotta get some shut eye, and you need a break from that taxing business!"

"What?"

Xiang giggled, and she stared at Shifu with sparkling, humored green eyes. "See, my Baba works for Ling's taxes. He's been paranoid and a busy body ever since I cooed saliva." She sighed tiredly and frowned. "He's barely had any breaks. Maybe it's because of-you know what? It's not important anyway; just forget it."

"Xiang." Shifu laid his sweaty hands on her soft ones. "We're drenched, in a cave, and hidden from several bloodthirsty troops. This is strangely the best time to tell someone something worth sharing. And as much as I hate to admit it, I'd like to know what happened."

With the promising shine in his sky blue eyes, Xiang gave in. "Okay look. My father married a free-willed, gorgeous dancer on the streets. Her name was Yan Mei, and he immediately was struck. But after I was born, he realized how much she was fleeing from him. So after he told her his reasons, she left in anger. Luckily, I was kept by Baba and still technically am." Her eyes then turned misty. "But to this day, I wondered what would've happened if Mama-or Yan Mei, kept a better fight for her only kid?"

"Why do you wonder so much," Shifu asked.

She shrugged and held a sniff. "I don't know. Maybe it's because Yan Mei takes her children seriously. Maybe Yan Mei lets me be adventurous and speak my mind. Maybe Yan Mei isn't stressed over a slight mistake at a meeting that 'I've' caused. Maybe Yan Mei doesn't forget her daughter's birthdays!" Xiang gulped, and unshed tears were now barely but truly visible to the other red panda.

"I wanted to tell him; I really did. He's probably worried because I'm the only one that makes him feel kind left! Besides, its just like that snow leopard said; there are plenty of pretty faces on the streets."

Her outburst made Shifu clench his dark fists. "Listen; your father loves you with all of his heart-"

"Ha! You don't know the FIRST thing about my Baba. You'll never know. You think that all villagers are these happy go-getters with smiles on their faces twenty-four/seven, don't' cha_ master_? Just because you guys are gloomy with the same monotones and routine. Well congratulations! You've just finally met someone who lives that monotone life! After I turned ten, I was expected to take on special responsibilities as a 'future' worker of Ling's Taxes and earn another pathetic job as a waitress. I came here for a simple vacation with MingZhu for the diner business to expand. And now, I'm a master with a band of paralyzed troops and you! So you can just stop right there with your assumptions because you don't know what he'll do when HE FINDS OUT!" Her bottom lip quivered, and she hid her face in her hands.

"All that I've done for him…..It'll end in shame…"

Shifu, with a now heavier heart and sympathetic gaze, took out his spare, handmade bamboo flute. He carefully put trembling fingers in the right places and blew his melodic song. Instantly, Xiang's head shot up, and her eyes slowly grew heavier. She swayed softly to the soothing tune, and she soon flopped back on the smooth rock to sleep.

Without thinking, Shifu gazed at her sleeping form, recognizing the hidden but clear traits of his late foster father. "You have his eyelids," Shifu whispered. He put a paw on her forehead just in case. "Too delicate, too delicate indeed."

_In the present that night….._

Tigress had informed Shifu and Xiang about the bandits with a giddy panda behind her.

"The leading gorilla said something….inappropriate about you, master," Tigress faltered. "Monkey reported it to us."

"Yeah! It has something to do with-um-gosh how do I put this-"

"Spit it, panda."

"Shifu, you don't have a girlfriend do you?"

Shifu suddenly felt the urge to grip Xiang's arm from Po's question. 'Why am I acting so worried at such a stupid question,' he thought to himself.

"No, Po." He grit his teeth and avoided Xiang's eyes. "i do not. Master Monkey!"

The primate master quickly entered the kitchen they were in. " Yes, Master?"

"Tell me exactly what the gorilla bandit had said."

Even more hesitantly than before with Po, Monkey whispered the insult. After it was said, Shifu's right eye twitched nonstop and his arms fell loose at his sides. Surely, even a **gorilla** would know better than to say something so-so **foul** about a master for the valley's sake!

"Whoa." Unfortunately, Xiang was near him and heard the insult word for word. "That's not a pretty mouthful. And why would they call you, a red panda, a jack-"

"Po! Tigress! Look through the scroll cubby and search for anything about these bandits' main origin."

"Yes, Master." Soon, both masters dashed off, leaving a master with a headache and a curious villager.

"So…Master, you play the flute?"

_To Tigress and Po at the scroll cubby….._

"This is SO EXCITING," Po squealed in delight. "I've always wanted to be in the secret scroll cubby of ancient history-"

"Po. First; it's not a secret scroll cubby, and even villagers have used it in the tightest of situations. Two; there's only one scroll cubby. And three; focus. We're looking for graphic or at the least, any kind of description about the history of those gorilla and maybe even pythons we encountered last night." She spotted several scrolls in a heap and handed them to Po. "Look through those; they're around half of the scrolls in here. I'll look through the other half."

Pouting, Po tried to focus on the dull, tannish scrolls. Suddenly, his eyes widened at one scroll. "Uh…Tigress-"

"Po, I got it!" A small smile escaped her lips, as she showed him the drawn sketches of the gorilla bandits. "These bandits are from the rough clan formed in both the Zhong, Ling, and Li Provinces. They first fought for the wealth of several rich emperors who needed guards. But apparently, they were too immature and roughhoused on the job. One day, they were even imprisoned for several years. That is until Su Wu freed them. But a few hundred years ago, Master Oogway was able to banish them to the Ripping Rivers of Rage, and they've managed to stay there. That is until they, or at least there descendants, appeared here and possibly blackmailed several python bandits."

"Wait." Po scratched his head and peered at Tigress. "How do we know that the pythons are innocent?"

"From the way they fought and how they're on the allies list, Po, guessing is essential." She looked over Po's shoulder and examined his scroll. "You're reading diary pages, huh?"

Blushing at the physical contact and tease, Po began to stutter defensively. "W-What? Ti-Tigress, this i-is a diary page about the b-bandit d-dudes and-"

Suddenly, Po's eyes came upon a hidden diary in the cubby. It was stained with red markings of who-knows-what, dust, and smelled oddly like vanilla. Its aqua blue quilt cover was partially torn off, yet is was still easy to write or doodle in. Clearly, it was a girl's diary.

"It has Shifu's name in here, TOO!" Po covered his giggles with huge paws.

Frowning in confusion and irritation at the panda, Tigress caught his left ear, scooped up the diary, and dragged him back to the kitchen.

"He must see this," Tigress stated.

"WAIT OW! Tigress, OW! What IS it with women and their secrets these days?"


	8. Serpents and Swordplay

Serpents and Swordplay

**Before reading: Shen and the Soothsayer make an appearance in this story soon. (!) And for anyone curious, Shen's father's name is Chang, which means 'prosperous,' and Shen's mother's name is Ya, which means 'elegant'. And believe me, they will not be what you would've expected them to be. One more thing for my first reviewer, TTinsanedragon13, THANKS FOR REVIEWING! Feel free to continue reading in your spare time!**

"Great. These bozos will_ never_ let us through."

That next morning, Xiang and Shifu had departed from the gloomy cave and traveled around ten miles nonstop. It would've helped if they'd stopped for at least five minutes, yet Shifu continued to remind her that her friends did not have all day. They then came to a foggy, earth green valley with what they assumed were logs or shadows of the steep hills. Boy, were they blind that morning!

"I should've known that we would've came across Guangdong Province," Shifu hissed to himself, as he and Xiang stood with their backs next to each other.

"Oh don't stress yourself! I've actually been here-"

"What?" Shifu glanced at the perfectly calm Xiang. "Then why didn't you-"

She raised her paws up defensively. "Hey. That was when I was small enough to fit in their mouths! And all I remember was Mama and Baba were fighting-" Her eyes dilated at the mentioning of her parents together, and Shifu turned from her in sympathy.

The several dozen serpents surrounding them hissed so loudly and clearly, a passerby would've assumed the racket was a flowing river. One tried to bite Xiang, but failed to from the painful whack from Shifu. One tannish snake even managed to slither up his arm, yet Xiang found the weakest point, his tail, and threw him as if he was a twig. Soon, however, the snakes cleared a path for their rulers; two green apple snakes and their tiny, familiar daughter.

"Why have you red panda crossed our domain," the taller, male snake hissed.

"The Valley of Woe is now forever forbidden for any villager or master. And here's proof." His queen threw a bitten and pale giant crocodile lizard, who still twitched nervously in death. Shifu staggered back a little from the horrible scent, and Xiang was there to steady him.

"We are Kung Fu masters," Xiang replied boldly without stuttering. "And I believe that serpents are not responsible for giving us orders." She looked at the pouting daughter in their clutches, recognizing her. "Are you….Lien?" Suddenly, the serpents around them hissed threats of death in their ears.

The male ruler seemed too angry to speak, and his wife was purely shocked. "How dare you associate our daughter that way! We are immortal serpents, never to need one common name! And even if she did have a name, our daughter would not have one so…so trampish!"

Xiang cocked her head a little. "But your majesty, I thought Lien meant 'beautiful,'-"

This time, the emperor snake spoke up. "Why would we name her a name to represent honor when she has shamed our name?" He ordered the serving snakes to have the two red pandas bound in coils, and the emperor sat down to explain. "If you must know before you're corpses, our daughter ran away last night to a peasant gathering in Zhong Province. As we'd expected, she was kidnapped and even paralyzed with some snobby snake of a master! If you ever become parents, young ones, realize the circumstances that come when they turn into disobedient BRATS!" He turned to slap Lien two times on both cheeks, making her cheeks burn and sizzle with pain.

Feeling the rage from her pumping veins, Xiang thrusted at the three snakes. "You cannot do that," she whispered. "That is pure ABUSE!"

The queen snake laughed evilly in their faces, forcefully grabbed their emotionally weak daughter, and revealed a trap that held Master Viper and Dr. R, the 'Mingle Meet' hostess. "If that is abuse, my child, then I do not know what to tell you."

Then, a huge, bulky figure was seen gliding in the clouds. He landed with a THUMP, puffed out his armored chest, and smirked broadly. "Well, well, well. If it isn't the nameless serpent dynasty, causing chaos again."

"Oh my GOSH," Dr. R. squealed with sparkling grey eyes and shook the startled Master Viper. "It's him!"

"Who?" Shifu turned to look at Xiang as if she'd lost her mind.

"Master Flying Rhino," Shifu clarified with a look of admiration, "He once battled several lizard assassins and still holds the damage from their butterfly knives."

Xiang gave an approving nod and whoop. "Kick his butt, homie!"

"You know," Master Viper hissed smartly. "You could just free us now and_ then _have your fun at crushing them, Rhi!"

The bold rhino smirked. "Sure when you finally admit your concern to this venom head's lovely daughter, MV." He soon charged the dozens of snakes and jabbed several of them at a time to the grass and in a daze. As he battled them with ease, Lien had managed to slither out of her mother's painful grasp and release the master and hostess from their ropes and chains.

"Thank you, my dear." Master Viper stretched out his tannish green coils and set his hazel eyes on her crystal blue ones. "And what is your name?"

"Lien, Master Viper." She bowed gracefully and Dr. R whistled.

"This is the best fight I've EVER seen up close!"

"You mean the _only_ fight you've seen up close, Rose," Lien pointed out.

Soon, all the snakes in the valley had either fallen, passed out, or even fled to avoid them. Xiang took the moment to stare at the four older animals fondly. "AWWWW! I cannot believe this! That is kinda sweet how they all paired up like that and-" She subconsciously laid her head on Shifu's right shoulder. "-And avoid the monotone life of protection for once."

Under the physical contact, Shifu's stomach had suddenly grown tight and yet also mushy and soft. He despised and yet wanted the feeling and- gosh! He needed to stop this from turning any dangerous tables! "Let's head out," he mumbled.

_In the present….._

_"I've been on the run for many years since that traitor of mine broke my fragile heart,_" Po read out loud for the other warriors. "_And on this day, the others are being either terribly bossy or terribly lousy. Why must I do the work of a leader when I am nothing more than a punch sack. Sincerely, Y.M."_

"What kind of name is 'Y.M'," Mantis wondered out loud.

"Her name is in initials," Crane added. "And the date here is from a….couple of decades ago."

"We're reading an old lady's DIARY," Po gasped. "Isn't that a-I dunno,_ invasion of privacy _as you call it, Crane?"

"It isn't when information is needed at hand," Shifu informed his students, while examining the diary. "This woman was from the City of Blissful Fragrance, which is not too far from the ports of Gongmen city. Perhaps we have enough time to take a little trip to visit the Soothsayer about this mess. Mantis, Viper, and Crane; you three must stay here to guard the Jade Palace. If any of those bandits return or new ones emerge, fight them off as much as you can and send for Zheng to find us. The rest of you will come with me; we must seek help from the Kung Fu council. The bandits from the scrolls and this diary may lead to a very possible and ominous threat to the Valley."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Xiang began to jump up and down, with her hand raised like a kindergartner. Shifu pointed to her.

"Yes….Xiang?"

"Master Shifu, uh, can I come? I'm curious about that Kung Fu council with the three tall-looking guys."

"Oh, CAN she master," Po begged. "I've always wanted to tell someone '_Po's side of the story,' Deluxe Edition_."

"Po," Tigress lightly punched him. "That's enough of the third story business."

"Oh man! Tigress, that makes it more _awesome!_"

"We leave immediately, my students," Shifu continued, ignoring Xiang and Po's pouts. "Gather the necessities you need and-" He sighed a long, dull sigh of regret. "And if you are _silent and behave_, you may accompany us, child."

Po and Xiang head-butted each other in victory, only to fall back in pain. Tigress rolled her amber eyes at their act, yet secretly wondered why Po was being so attentive to _her_.

_Thirty years ago in Guangdong Province…._

"Thanks for the directions to Gongmen City, Master," Xiang thanked the fatherly rhino master.

"It's the least I can do for such a talented new student," Master Flying Rhino pointed out."Remember since I'm on break from Gongmen City's council to defeat all of these serpents, my king probably won't believe that I've allowed you access to rescuing."

"Master, then how do we convince them," Shifu worried.

The rhino pointed at their clothes. "They'll realize you're somewhat acquainted with the council from your clothes. However if that fails, you two know what comes next."

"Kick booty and run like you have to go badly," Xiang guessed questionably.

Master Flying Rhino roared in laughter, but then settled down. "No, young students. Do not harm any soul unless they change stripes and colors. Just….display what you know."

"You mean like circus performers," Shifu guessed bitterly.

"Exactly; I am glad you seen my point." He patted both red pandas on the back and accompanied the departing Master Viper, Lien, and Dr. R.

As they left the serpent-scattered scene, Shifu put his face in his paws. How in China was he supposed to drag Xiang to Gongmen city, earn the peace of a prideful peacock emperor, and rescue his comrades who may not even be there, in about _two_ days? Shifu knew that Su Wu's troops would find them very soon, and he had to prevent it for the future Furious Five's safety. Meanwhile, Xiang was yawing and stretching, as if she had just got out of bed.

"I'm hungry, Shifu. Aren't you?"

"A master must wait until his task is at least half complete to care for even the greatest of needs," Shifu stated seriously, as he continued on the nearby path to Gongmen City.

"We haven't eaten since sunrise and now it's above us in the clouds," Xiang squawked. "Well, I'm going to be the _practical_ one in this and get something for both of us to eat." But before she could even walk two steps, Shifu grabbed her tail and flung her back in front of him.

"HEY!" Xiang slapped his right hands and growled. "Keep your hands, feet, and TAILS to yourself, chief! How would you feel if I did-" She pulled his tail and flipped him to the ground. "THAT?"

Smirking and up for the challenge, Shifu stood up and attempted to snatch her fluffy tail, as she was trying to pull his. If someone saw them, one would assume they were dancing from their graceful jumps and flips. But basically, it was a spar for pride.

"Shifu, I think your weight is making this whole gig seem slower."

"No, I do believe it is your mouth that is," Shifu teased back, biting a smile as he stared at her frowning self.

"Admit it chief," Xiang taunted him, as he failed at tripping her with his left foot. "I should lead this mission, and you should keep your worries to yourself. I mean, no offense, but you _need_ to get out a little more often."

"What about you," Shifu taunted back, as he barely missed her hands. He flipped effortlessly to face her back, and took her hands. "You're just one step away from the_ desperate _sidelines," Shifu whispered in her left ear.

Knowing what he was trying to accomplish, Xiang kicked him from behind in the gut and laughed. "You sly son of a dog you! Thinking that you're oh so irresistible won't fly for a girl who's immune to that crud."

"It helps with others." Shifu raised his right foot and aimed for her left cheek, and Xiang hit the ground. But when the anger from his words settled in, Xiang got up and backflipped over him.

"What 'others'? Women aren't as weak as you big-headed male masters assume." She dodged his attacks and punched his gut hard.

Clutching his chest, Shifu glared at her. "I'm a more respectful student and now master than that, Xiang. I'd never use charm for just any innocent woman on the street but for threatening ones of my species or not."

A little surprised but nonetheless understanding the seriousness and sacrifices of his position, Xiang dropped her stance. "Sorry, Shifu. It's just that as a stubborn girl, I tend to get a little carried away with how I truly feel about something." She held her right hand out and grinned amiably. "Truce?"

"Truce," Shifu shook her small hand tenderly and bowed. "Let us resume the mis-"

"HEY RACCOONS!"

The yelling person made both Xiang and Shifu jump. Then, Xiang tripped on a nearby and random tree stub, taking Shifu down with her on the hill roll ride. They rolled and complained and rolled until Xiang managed on land on the humiliated Shifu. They soon heard the sound of flapping wings.

"Oh my wings." FengHuang sat herself gracefully next to the red pandas. "Am I interrupting anything too drastic? Or is it true that a klutz is in front of me?"

"Klutz." Xiang brushed the strands of earth green grass off her wrap dress and soft fur, which now glowed in the sunlight. "But FengHuang, how-"

"Alright listen; Yuan, Junjie, and I were sent to the peacock emperor. We were paralyzed until some goat 'accidentally' tossed some dusty yellow dust on my feathers."

"Why," Shifu asked in awe. "Was she the legendary Soothsayer?"

"Probably. But I do not care _who_ she is. My feathers are too delicate for _any_ substance, well, besides water." She ruffled some remains of the yellow dust near Xiang, making her sneeze. "Pardon me, Xiang. Anyway, that pompous Yuan was sent as the entertainment for the prince, Junjie is now one of the maids, and I managed to escape as expected."

"Is anyone else imprisoned in Gongmen Palace," Shifu asked earnestly.

The beautiful owl looked at him as if he'd gone nuts. "Shifu, we're not imprisoned. Well, Su Wu had us in chains, Yet after, we were released in Gongmen. No ruler in their right mind would keep warriors young or old as slaves, and even Su Wu's clan had no intention of enslaving us yet. However, they're now using us so that they can kill the present royal families of China so that they'll control all of China!"

"Whoa whoa whoa." Xiang put a hand on FengHuang's shoulder. "So you're saying that if we don't save the present masters, Su Wu will rule China in about-"

"She once mentioned a week," FengHuang replied solemnly.

Then as if they all had read each other's minds, the three new warriors sprinted in the direction of Gongmen City's glowing sun.

_That night….._

After facing another raging storm, heat, and muffled complaints, they reached Gongmen's ports on a boat lead by a mysterious and cloaked being.

"Who is this guy," Xiang whispered curiously to Shifu. "He's made no eye contact, if he even _has _eyes, no greetings or even a 'friendly' wave."

"He nodded, Xiang."

"Oh, and look who's the expert!"

"You two are almost as worse as Yuan," Xiang whined.

"Pipe down," a high pitched voice from the strange sailor shouted as he steered. Then, the charcoal black cloak was removed, and the three warriors eyes' boggled.

"You're twin weasels," Shifu murmured slowly. "_The_ Master Twin Weasels."

"You bet the ports, young master," one weasel with longer eyelashes chirped, who was apparently female. "And just call me Yin."

"And I'm Yin, if it's not obvious enough." He slid off the steering wheel and shook Shifu's thumb. "We've been sent by Master Flying Rhino so that you two-or now three can rescue some of the troops. Now you may not be aware but Master Chao is being questioned by one of Su Wu's warriors at Gongmen City Jail."

"Once you three are able to come to a respectful agreement with the peacock emperor, Emperor Chang, go there to free Chao so that he'll be of an aid for the others."Shifu, FengHuang, and soon Xiang bowed with honor to the beaming weasels, and they returned the honor with an equal bow.

"We have arrived, troops," Yang announced, as they turned to face the glowing sunset of Gongmen City. Once they thanked the twin weasels, leapt on a nearby village house, and observed the deserted streets, the plan was set.

"FengHuang; you should scan the city for any unseen captives or some of Su Wu's troops. Xiang and I will attempt to gain access in the palace. Once we reached the inside, FengHuang, quietly join us, and we'll plan our next steps from there." The Eurasian eagle owl winked and then soared through the misty clouds and rays of departing sunshine.

With Shifu in front, the two red panda quietly jumped and ran through the city and kept their eyes peeled. Well, Xiang was also focused on the annoying growls from her slim stomach. But then, presto! An abandoned sack of juicy-looking vegetables was left for Xiang to grab a hold of and sink her teeth into.

'Oh please do not notice me,' Xiang chanted in her spinning mind, as she slyly reached for the sack of veggies. But to her rotten luck, Xiang accidentally put her left hand on an unseen shard of glass on the counter, making her left palm bleed nonstop. Covering a grunt or squeal of pain from the searching Shifu, she wrapped a seen bandage on the injury and gently snatched the veggies off the counter. Then, Xiang breathed a sigh of relief and beamed triumphantly.

"Put the goods down," Shifu ordered without even turning to her.

With her mouth agape and still holding onto the sack, Xiang joined Shifu. "How'd you-"

He grabbed her sack and dumped it in a trash bin. "Hey, chief! I was going to share!"

Still with a poker face, Shifu took her poorly bandaged left palm. "What did you do to your hand?"

"I'm restless."

"Ugh! Never mind." He eyed Gongmen palace, took her right hand, and sprinted in the sought direction. Every time a bandit was seen, both red pandas were slick enough to use their small height as their advantage. Xiang had assumed that the mission would've been longer, yet perhaps she had underestimated Shifu.

_In the palace….._

Once they managed to find FengHuang in the fiery red entrance of the palace, they decided to face the several cases of stairs in front of them.

_Several minutes later…._

"I guess this peacock dudes got a grudge on the-woo! Oh my tax! -The-the weak and feeble," Xiang assumed out loud.

"Sh, Xiang." Shifu scanned the top of the stairs, noticing how close they were to the Throne Room. "We are almost there-"

"No dip, Oogway," FengHuang smirked. However, her deep blue eyes widened to a screaming, young wolf soldier. "Team, trouble's ahead."

Suddenly, many wolf soldiers and a few gorillas surrounded the three warriors, growling and sniffing them. But with one caw from the Throne Room, the soldiers made room for one strutting, prideful male peacock. Xiang's eyes widened a little at his magnificent aura, FengHuang used a grey wing as a fan, and even Shifu stepped back a little. His deep oceanic eyes glowed and went perfectly with his teal blue and lime specked feathers. He wore jade green robe with magenta lining. After observing the three with stern, careful eyes, Emperor Chang ushered for them to come forward. They did so with the wolf army, and Chang sat in front of his marvelous throne. Every animal in that room besides the peacock gulped and wondered what his intentions were under his stern gaze. But to their shock, he let our a cackle.

"My dear Ya was wrong! The Kung Fu council DOES care for my side of the story; emperors deserve sneak peaks. As young ones, I know you may not understand the full concept of the Ceremonial Fan Dance. But as you may know, my willful wife has told me that you warriors will NEVER give a poor emperor like me the chance to witness the very last fan dance. But now, I thank you for sharing your knowledge to us. Feel free to dance for us at any time!"

"What?" Xiang shook her head. "Sir, um, your majesty, we were told that Yuan was-" Shifu slapped her mouth shut with his right paw.

"We'd be happy to perform for you, my king."

"Excellent." Chang beamed at the three warriors. "And did you say 'Yuan?' Oh, that rooster is such a confident bird, and Shen is now well acquainted with him. If you wish to speak to him or even Junjie, feel free as long as we get to see your charming fan dance-"

"OH NO!" Chang gulped weakly at they feminine yell. Soon, a stunning peahen with deep magenta feathers, dark brown eyes, and indigo robes with royal blue lining strutted in the Throne Room to glare at her husband. "You're most certainly NOT going to interrupt Shen's sword training. He doesn't need his high-necked father parading around in HIS business!…"

As Ya continued to scold the cowering Chang, FengHuang and Xiang covered their giggles. Shifu shook his head in amusement, amazed at how the Great Peacock Emperor showed no fear to enemies but to his own wife! He guessed that that was true love, showing almost all emotions to the ones you most care about without a second thought.

"That is worth not eating for," Xiang muttered.

Now noticing the warriors, Ya put on a motherly grin. "Oh, they are SO CUTE! I mean- OOP! Sorry, it's just that when your only son is already eighteen, you'd think that every young person you see is beyond adorable! I cannot wait for you three to meet-" Two sword fighting birds soon skittered in the Throne Room with a beaming Soothsayer behind them.

"I'll crush your kingdom and scar you for life oh worthless knight," Yuan proclaimed playfully in the act.

"Not if I have the honor of slaying the traitors' heart!" Prince Shen, panting but also grinning, clashed his sharp feather sword with Yuan's.

"BOYS!" The yell of a seemingly stressed queen abruptly stopped the sword fight. "Allow me to introduce more warriors who'll dance for us soon."

Approaching the warriors with a head raised high, Prince Shen eyed them with scarlet eyes. He smiled a little for the lovely owl and then took the hand of the small red panda with green eyes. "It's a pleasure to meet you all," Shen greeted them suavely. "I do hope that your fan dance will be at its best."

"I can assure you, my prince." Shifu felt himself frown at how Shen's feathers cupped Xiang's injured hand, and he clenched his tiny fists. "You won't forget it."

**Story age now for Shifu and Xiang: 53**

**Story age for then: 23**

**Story age for Shen then:18**

**And for everyone else?": I guess I'm free to leave it up to you guys whether the girls were twenty-six or the guys were in their thirties or something like that. Basically in the story's past time, the young masters like Shifu were around 20-26 years old, and the elderly masters were around 30-39 years old. I hope that's clear enough and thanks for reading this story!**


	9. Fans and Family

Fans and Family

_In the present that evening.._

Tigress, Po, Monkey, Shifu, and Xiang departed with a few of the basic necessities of tightly packed refreshments, extra clothes, and canteens filled with water in a small wagon. During the trip, Xiang pondered about the rickety thing and thought she saw a rooster in it once. Luckily, she decided to keep it to herself, since she and Shifu were already getting headaches from Po and Tigress' constant arguments.

The stubborn panda and hard-headed tigress were bickering over the silliest and yet most noticeable things. For instance, why Po couldn't keep silent for five minutes was a popular one or why Tigress was such a busy body in times of 'awesomeness.' Shifu felt tempted to abandon the two warriors on a cliff as a life lesson for all that is good. It didn't help Xiang's blood pressure either, yet she couldn't help but see herself arguing with….someone long ago and sadly still unnamed.

The daily topic to argue about right now was singing. "Tigress, you gotta sing for everyone when only half of us are here! It makes it seem easier, right?"

"Quite the contrary." Tigress rolled her amber eyes. "It only makes it only more devastatingly horrid."

"Please? We promise that we won't laugh!"

"I believe that we have twenty more hours with each other," Shifu added, as he led the group up the Depth Hills of Horseplay. "Po, you'll have plenty of hours to hear any of our voices. But overall, singing is entirely not needed in a time like this."

"Oh, but it really makes time fly, Master," Po gushed, remembering how his father, Mr. Ping, lead a chirpy and cheerful song at his noodle shop with Po as a background singer. Their favorite song was a lullaby called 'Mama meadow. (I own the lyrics.)

Po:'When the sun makes his path of light and glory, that is where the mother of the meadow sets the story.

And even fools know the toll of why the moon brings light, because Mama meadow was there that night.'

"I know that song!" Xiang hopped up and down to get Po's attention while giggling. All three of the other masters gazed at her with disbelief and curiosity.

"You do?"

"I do, master! I once heard it from some woman….She was quite pale and….always had a way of never returning." For a moment, Shifu saw resistance and grief flash her eyes, but then the red panda shrugged. "Heh, guess I ate too much of Po's sweet dumplings."

"Oh, so it was YOU then!" Monkey poked her accusingly while playfully staring at her.

"You bet your totters. I can't really help it when I'm starving."

"Thanks a lot, Xiang." Po slumped and poked Monkey's ribs. "Monkey has been interrogating me about eating the leftover amount of those breakfast dumplings all day!"

"Interrogating?" Xiang gasped and circled Po. "Did I just hear an intelligent verb come out of your throat? Shifu, the world is at its END!" She feigned a faint, and Monkey had to hold a snicker.

"Will you two just be QUIET," Shifu snapped. "We have to cross these hills, the Deserts of Despair, the Rivers of Rivals, and the Village of Victors. I will not tolerate bickering at all! Do I make myself _clear?_"

They all reached the bottom of the thirtieth hill they encountered, and Xiang faced him with hands on her hips. "Yes, but we weren't - GAH!" Out of nowhere, five muscular, rough stallions sprinted to Xiang and threw her up in the air as if she was a chew toy. For a minute, the scene amused the warriors, since Xiang wasn't the best at holding yelps, howls, and screamed insults.

"PUT ME DOWN! I HAVE MY RIGHTS!" Xiang tried to kick or thrash her way out of their grips and throws, yet they were skillful at throwing. Soon, she landed roughly on a golden stallion, and she was disgusted to find strands of fur tickle around her tiny tongue. "Oh, it's because I'm a shorty feminist, isn't' it, you hoof tools! Listen here-"

The golden stallion tossed her on the damp grass of the hills. "Look, buds! She has the mouth of a darn rhinoceros!"

"Nope!" Another male stallion, who was blue grey, kicked her stomach with his hooves and snickered in her face. "I say she's a pussy cat in a rat's body!"

"Ugh!" Another horse that was reddish brown, trotted to them and smirked evilly. "She's no pussy cat. They're actually attractive!"

"Ha Ha!" Xiang flipped to slap the horse's face and dodge his bites. "It's weird of you to pick on some smaller animal! Don't you teens have anything better to do than abuse others from pure jealousy!"

The other two horses, both with dark brown mains and earth brown coatings, approached her threateningly with their clan. "You gotta a lot of guts to say that to the 'Roughhousing Ribs,' shorty."

"Yeah! This chick's way off her rocker!"

"Yeah? And you're way off the B.O. scale! Take a bath, and maybe I'll actually be able to take you hobos seriously."

The horses sneered and instantly charged Xiang. During their fits of nipping, biting, teasing, and hoof-kicking her, she realized that they were centered on more her lower body. If her stomach and/or legs gave way, they would use this as their advantage to pin her down and stomp her from their heights. So, Xiang decided that if they wanted a fight, they'd get a dance.

"Bite on this!" Xiang freely flipped over one horses' full body from the tail to the head and jabbed him in the nose. When he rose back, she slid under his legs and pushed herself up to split-kick him and another one of his 'buds.' But after the seventh assault, one horse pinned her with two, stony hooves. And even Xiang had to admit, these tool brains were very strong with their feet. But before Xiang could care about the horse's hoof near her face, her attacker staggered back when a red and white flash attacked him from the side.

Xiang's jaw automatically dropped at the sight of the red panda master kicking those foolish stallions' rears. Not only were his attacks too quick to blink at and wickedly crafty, Shifu was precise and accurate about each and every move of one hoof, glare, and nip. He dodged all of their attacks and switched different stances to surprise and dizzy them. The other red panda would probably never admit this, yet he was too awesome to even reveal his skills. And with one look of his smug smirk from afar, Xiang knew that he knew that more than anyone else.

Xiang was about to assure the other masters when she noticed something else. She just happened to notice the small trickle of sweat escape Shifu's forehead and land on his furry, frizzled tail with just one second look at the unconscious stallions. His sky blue eyes were now intense after the rush of fighting, and Xiang had to shake her head a few times to cease her staring.

'What in all that is sane am I _doing_,' Xiang scowled inwardly. 'Perfect, Xiang. Not only are you looking like some master-crazy village fan with a dropped jaw, but you're looking like you're checking out a master!'

"Xiang? Xiang? What's the face about?" Po snapped his furry fingers multiple times to get Xiang's attention, and soon the red panda was out of her trance.

"Uh…I was just thinking how Shifu was able, you know, kick their guts and rears like that."

"Gee," Po drawled out sarcastically. "I have NO idea! Maybe it's because he is a-"

"I do not need sarcasm," Xiang added curtly. She started to stroll over to Shifu. "I just need some facts."

Po shook his head absentmindedly and ran back to where Tigress was meditating on a single slope of the hill to calm herself and Monkey was gazing at the glowing, peach orange sunset from far away. Knowing that Monkey was still very concerned about what the gorillas at the Jade Palace were plotting, Po decided to join Tigress. As quietly as he could, Po sat himself next to the tigress and mimicked her meditative state.

Suddenly, Tigress' ears perked up to the sound of another animal's breathing. She quickly snatched the intruder's throat and pinned him down, only to find gentle jade green eyes boggle in surprise at her. Embarrassed, the tiger feline released Po and looked in the opposing direction to avoid his eyes. "Forgive me, Po. I-I didn't hear you come at first." She smirked at the irony of it all. "After all this time, you've improved your stealth mode."

Grinning with pride at the compliment, Po let out a great whoop. "Finally, the bodacious panda of pure, mind-blowing awesomeness has been rewarded a compliment by the beautiful master of the tiger style!" Tigress turned with wide eyes at his words, wondering why in a thousand years would the ignorant, and yet so compassionate panda would EVER call her, the hardcore, stony-faced warrior, _beautiful_?

"What did you just call me," Tigress asked slowly and suspiciously.

"I _said_ you were the beautiful mast-" Po gawked at his own words and grew red once more. "Oh BEANS TO THE SKILLET! Look, I'm sorry about all this remarking crud about you that comes out of my mouth, Tigress. But I promise you that it'll soon stop."

"Po-"

"Please, give me a chance!" Tigress stood up, as Po kneeled desperately."I'll stop the babbling. Well, I probably won't stop babbling for good, but I will about you! It's just that you're not-I mean you are! No! That all came out very wrong!" Tigress grabbed Po's shoulders and knelt to meet his eye level.

"I'm what, Po?"

"You'd rip me to shreds."

"Would I?"

"Would you?"

"Po." Tigress' face softened, and tints of red blush crept on her orange fur. "It's about that kiss, or _attempted_ kiss, isn't it?"

"Pft! What makes you think _that_?" Po laughed sheepishly, but his fun soon faded when he saw how concerned she looked. "Tigress, what is it?"

"I was too persistent, wasn't I?"

"What? No, no, no, no! You weren't on _my_ level-" He stumbled at his words and humiliated himself repeatedly. "That is definitely not what I meant!"

"Answer this, Po." She pulled him in closer, and he could feel her warm breath tickle and tease his mouth. "Did you actually want to kiss me?"

"Did you?"

"I asked you first," Tigress smiled playfully.

"Yeah? Well I came here first. Tigress…." His eyes found hers and he breathed a content sigh and grew hypnotized by her glowing amber eyes. "I'm such an idiot…." He crashed his lips into hers, throwing them both off guard. But soon, Tigress moaned softly and put her arms around his neck, as Po gently held her slim waist. After what seemed like a blissful eternity, they both simultaneously ended the kiss and panted heavily.

"First kiss," Po asked in a deeper tone.

"The first and best," Tigress whispered passionately. She was about to kiss him a second time when a cough interrupted them once more. Only this time, a red panda in a trance was there and not an obnoxious gorilla.

"Please do NOT tell Shifu," Po begged to her with his arms holding the grinning tigress protectively.

Xiang shook her head at him and to clear her mind from her daily daydreams and grinned teasingly. "Don't worry, kids. You won't be getting that much attention from the chief anytime soon. If he can flip about an 'intruder' napping, he'll cook you alive, Po, if he sees you with his only daughter."

Tigress pulled away from Po, and her eyes narrowed into slits. "How did you know that Shifu adopted me?"

"I don't know," Xiang honestly replied. "He just seems so…fatherly around you."

"You don't know the first thing about him," Tigress growled and returned to her meditating in a farther place.

"Students," Shifu shouted out to his students. "We must make camp soon, since it'll turn dark in an hour or two. Let's resume up till the borderline that meets the deserts."

"Yes master," the four animals replied and soon joined the red panda master. They sprinted and raged up and down the steep, earth green hills. The main problem that the warriors were forced to face was more stallion gangs. Yet unlike the last bullying 'Roughhouse Ribs' gang they so delightfully encountered, the other gangs were either embezzlers and had eyes for the little but critical supplies they had, or psychopaths that muttered strange phrases and threats around one particular animal. In fact, one beady-eyed and scalped stallion kept calling Monkey 'mother' and petting Po's belly and calling it the 'Wind snatcher'!

"Okay, I know that I'm not exaggerating when I say that these stallions have truly gone over the hill!" Monkey was still recovering from that one female stallion who made him count the hairs on her mane.

"Or maybe you," Xiang patted Shifu's left shoulder. "The wise one of this troop, read something we can count on. Correct?"

"The Depth Hills of Horseplay was once a setting where stallions and other animals lived. They repelled against the famous Ling Taxation establishment. And this is because an employee of the company had accidentally caused thousands of villagers from various cities to protest about the absolute governments after he convinced one emperor to release his troublemaking but heroic wife in prison."

"Who was this heroic wife," Po asked earnestly.

"None other than Lady Wind Song of the Blissful City of Fragrance."

"Come again?"

"We're here," Shifu pressed on, as they soon approached the sandy, rocky borderline of the hills and the desert. "We all will rise at the brink of morning. Until then, I advise that you rest as much as you can. At this rate, we'll be in Gongmen City tomorrow night. Good night." Grinning, Shifu laid his head on a smooth, slated rock and closed his eyes for some much needed shuteye.

"Who wants to hear a story?" Shifu held a sigh and rose to stare at Xiang.

"Seriously?"

"Oh, come ON, Master Shifu! Surely we can relax for just fifteen minutes with a story or game or something! Besides, it's only what, like six in the evening?"

"No fair!" Po suddenly stirred and pouted at the two like a young child. "Master, why does she get to tell a story at night and I don't?"

"Because she obviously hasn't received a master's punishment," Shifu smirked cunningly at the thought of Xiang pouting and sweeping every inch of the Jade Palace.

"That's because you know that I'm just too wonderful not to be handled roughly," Xiang teased and popped an almond in her mouth. Monkey noticed the bags of several almonds and dried apples strapped to her waist and gasped.

"Where'd you get the snacks?"

"Ah, I packed them." She grabbed a handful of the dried nuts and extended them to Monkey. "Want some?"

"We need to SLEEP," Shifu shouted, making the other four animals pause and stare at him. "Not eat, not tell stories, and most certainly, not STAY AWAKE!"

Tigress and Monkey decided right away to obey and laid down. Po, being to hungry one, tapped Xiang's shoulder. "Can I have some of the dried apples," Po whispered. But before she could give him some, Shifu cleared his throat.

"Good night, students."

"Master, try some-" Xiang tried to plea, yet Shifu held his right hand up. But once he opened one eye to see her bite her lip in disappointment, he sighed tiredly.

"Fine, we'll eat first thing in the morning. But we must save most of our goods for what is to come. Got it?"

She nodded, but Xiang attempted to try once more. "You sure you're not even a little hun-"

"_Good night_, child."

Xiang slumped sadly and laid her own head on a hard but supporting and warm rock. But before she dozed off in peace, one question played repeatedly in her mind. _"Why does he call me a 'child' when I know that I'm near his own age?"_

_Thirty years ago in Gongmen city…_

"So we're dancers now instead of slaves," Yuan guessed in the royal dressing room he, Junjie, and Master Shifu were allowed to temporally use to change into their costumes.

"No, here is the plan. Xiang is going to perform a song with FengHuang, while we help with the props, perform our act, and try to escape."

"Wait a second!" Junjie zipped up his aqua jumpsuit and glared at Shifu. "You're letting the girls escape during our performance aren't you?"

Shifu pinched his nose to control his rising temper. "Junjie, Yuan, the girls aren't idiots. They'll perform, as we try to persuade the emperor to let us go free and be aware of the Su Wu sisters' approach. And besides, we'll meet them at Gongmen Jail after we perform. Then, we'll free Master Chao. It's too terribly simple! Any questions?"

Yuan raised a wing and asked before Shifu could speak. "That all sounds suitable. But _how _are we going to save ourselves once the girls have left?"

Shifu patted Junjie on the back and smirked. "I say we issue Master Yao's physics act."

"And I say that'll do. However I too have a question." Junjie cocked his head at his friend and pursed his lips before continuing. "Since the girls have it all worked out for them, what's our act?" The red panda opened his mouth, only to shut it back up in defeat.

"I still haven't figured out that part yet-"

"OKAY BOYS," Chang yelled from the throne room. "Wow us when you're time comes after the girls! We need us to come along as well!"

All three of the men sighed but strolled into the colorful, lively throne room of the peacock palace. Emperor Chang and his lovely Ya held a more friendly but nevertheless powerful aura near them. Next to them, Lord Shen was staring at them unemotionally with blood red eyes. Shifu noticed that the peacock prince looked extremely pale, and the tips of his silky feathers were stained with ashes, ashes from some sort of unique weapon of fire. On the lower left side of the throne, the ancient, wise Soothsayer was staring curiously at them, as she stroked her beard.

"It's her," Junjie whispered to Shifu in awe. "The last legendary Soothsayer of the Bill beard dynasty! She's even wearing similar multicolored robes from the long traditions started by her great-grandmother Chen-"

"How do you know all this," Yuan questioned annoyingly.

"Last year, I studied the ancient Bill beard dynasty. Their individual history's are terribly difficult to find. Man! You do not know how many years I've spent going through all the scrolls-"

"What took you runts so long?"

Yuan and Junjie's jaws dropped at FengHuang, who's face was painted snow white with makeup, and her eyes had violet eyeshadow. Of course being the young, male Kung Fu masters they were, they couldn't take the owl's new look seriously. Junjie's face was pink from covering his muffled chuckles, but Yuan wasn't even trying.

A soft hand touched his tense back. "Chief, what's the plan?"

"You and FengHuang will perform your song first, as we-"

"We're ready, ladies," Ya gushed excitedly. "Shen, do not fall asleep! And..have you been hanging around the sword death traps, again?"

Once Xiang and FengHuang centered their selves in the very center of the massive throne room, Shifu took a second look. He wondered where Xiang was able to find a kimono so…fitting for the occasion. It was a teal blue kimono with sewed in patches of sea green stars and meaningful symbols, and she held a lovely golden fan in her hands with carnation pink blossoms drawn on it. Shifu admired her creativity, but then he quickly reminded himself that she earned them from the queen herself and she was supposed to look elegant?

'Then why are you still staring,' Shifu contemplated to himself mentally. Suddenly, Chang cued the threesome band of wolves, and they played a light, rhythmic melody with bamboo flutes and pot drums. FengHuang soared gracefully with an indigo fan in her beak, as Xiang fluttered out her fan over her face. Suddenly, Xiang backflipped three times and did the splits with the fan still close to her hidden face. Then, she twirled and spun in several circles until Xiang had to cease for what was best for her mind. And finally with the assistance of the owl's talons, Xiang posed with her fan. FengHuang kept a good grip on her and soon purposely dropped her from about thirty feet. Being a small red panda, Xiang could've possibly split her head opened, and the warriors and the royal family knew this all too well. But when Shifu was gripping on the edge of his rope in partial fear, Xiang landed on her tiny hands and flipped one last time with a memorable smile.

"Tada?" She kept her smile pasted on her face, even when every animal in the throne room except for the landing FengHuang only stared at her. Out of the blue, Yuan smirked and slowly clapped for the ladies. The emperor and his wife soon followed, and Shen soon whistled wildly. Junjie nudged Shifu, who had a genuine smile on his face. Xiang wasn't a terrible dancer at all, very light on her feet-

"It's your turn, gentlemen!" Shifu's smile was immediately replaced by a dry scowl. He was too drawn into the girls' dance to even try to persuade and warn the emperor! Perhaps it wasn't possibly too late!

"Emperor Chang." Shifu bowed lowly to the peacock emperor. "I humbly ask that-that-"

"He wants to dance with us." Xiang grasped Shifu's sweaty left hand, ignoring his 'are you that insane,'stare. "If it is alright with you, you're highness, we ask that we all perform together."

"Wonderful," Ya chirped and eyed her albino son, who was gazing at her pleadingly. "Under one condition; you let my son join you five."

"Sounds good." Xiang shrugged, dragged the confused and awestruck Shifu to the center, and cued the suave song. (**I'm centering this scene around the 'Assassin's Tango,' which was composed by none other than Kung Fu Panda composer, John Powell.)**

"Look chief," Xiang whispered lowly in his ear, as she set down her fan and took a hold of his hands in the tango. "I know that the plan failed from how gray your face is getting. But look!" She whirled herself around him and dramatically held her hand out to a random pillar. Squinting, Shifu saw a strange, clawed feline symbol scratched onto it. Frowning, he pulled his tango partner back in and gripped her waist.

"That is probably a mere coincidence. We need to-" She pointed out the several unnoticed markings of Su Wu around the room with her feet, as Shifu had somehow twirled Xiang with her head on his chest and their arms looped. "I see your point." He flipped her forward to face him, and they continued their dance. Shifu glanced around the throne room and gasped. "The only dancer I see is the prince. Where-"

"I ushered them out." Shifu finally had set his mind into the dance and lifted her highly off the ground. Then, he threw her, and Xiang backflipped so that she could land gracefully on her feet and snatch her fan. With flirtatious eyes, Xiang fan danced around Shifu and ushered for him to dance with Shen so they;d look less suspicious.

Blinking out of his trance, Shifu approached the awkward prince. Suddenly, a nearby window shattered and three tall, darkly dressed snow leopards flipped into the throne room. Leading the threesome, Su Wu smirked at the sound of the music and eyed the pale peacock emperor.

"Wonderful accompaniment for this fine evening, Emperor Chang." She bowed mockingly, and her sisters mimicked her. "But I'm afraid that you have warriors that have been back stabbing you this whole time. For they only wanted to visit you for this." She pulled out an ancient, rusty key from her wrap shirt. "With this, it'll now be me who frees the gorillas of Ling and take over all of China! So sorry that your chance was ruined, squirrels." She studied the two warriors, as the several other barging snow leopards took a hold of them and the royal family. "Interesting warriors. His muscles are well-built for someone so small, and I've observed his dancing partner's manipulative grace. What do you say that we complete this fun adventure together as allies?"

"First of all lady, we're not squirrels," Xiang spat out in irritation. "Second, you need to make a better interest without breaking something, even though you're evil. And lastly, well, the deal reeks! We're here to save the royal family from your sorry butts!"

Su Wu growled menacingly and released her deadly claws. "Very well. Then I guess we now have two extra slaves."

"About that-" Xiang kicked several snow leopards at a time and took Shifu's right hand. "I think you soon might be low on slaves!" But then, another paler red panda slapped her in the face and pulled them behind a huge pillar. "What the-"

The paler red panda shushed Xiang and hid her face in a silver fan. "Don't say what I thought you were gong to say, Xiang Mei Zhu. Cursing only helps with men, not haggish snow leopards like Su Wu."

"I wasn't-" She gasped when her jungle green eyes met mismatched ones that held longing emotions. "Wait…Mama?"


	10. Thresholds and Threats

Thresholds and Threats

"My, does your father even feed you?"

Xiang cleared her head with one forceful shake and grabbed her mother's bony shoulders to look her square in the eye and up and down, just to see if fate was only nipping her young and hopeful spirit. Nope, this was the sensual, cunning heroine and yet villain that her baba had told her about ever since she left one freezing morning. She looked exactly like the portrait that hanged in their dining room, mismatched eyes, moonlight pale fur, delicate almost fox-like ears, and the sliver fan that she always managed to keep up with. All in all, Yan Mei, or 'Y.M.,' was simply a drop dead gorgeous heartbreaker.

"I guess," Xiang shrugged at her previous question, still trying to recover from the chills in her stomach and back.

"It's been too long to recover from the 'long time no see' arrangements huh?" Yan Mei gave out a humorous laugh, yet quickly resumed to hiding her and her daughter. Next to her, Xiang was clenching her fists and held her tingling tongue. It would've been pure luck to witness the mother she assumed was _dead!_ Yan Mei glanced at her tight face and scowled with a tense forehead. "Y'know Xiang, you're truly your father's daughter; one joke or sudden coincidence and he goes over the hill. The drone, he must've made you believe that I'm some flirtatious pixie out for the thrill!"

"That and that you were dead!" With soft eyes, Xiang swiftly turned to look back at her daughter in shock.

"He said that? Oh I'm going to murder that son of a-" A mirroring sword was aimed at Yan Mei's throat, and a hand quickly snatched Xiang's small waist.

"You're coming with us," FengHuang snarled at Xiang and ushered to her uniform in which was midnight black and held the red slash symbol of Su Wu. "Shifu, she'd be a perfect hostage." Jabbing or at least trying to jab the snow leopards, Shifu clicked his tongue at FengHuang and grabbed Yuan's wing. "We really do not need her to tag along with us. We already have to find the several other masters-"

"Hands off, kiddos." Yan Mei flipped over the fivesome and unleashed her fan. "If you don't mind, I still have a city to save, thank you very much."

"What? But Mama, aren't you a-" The red panda used a fallen pillar and a smashed window to exit Gongmen palace safely. Xiang gritted her teeth, wanting to follow the mother who abandoned her many years ago. Removing Shifu's firm hand on her waist, Xiang sped off to the pillar, leapt gracefully, and shut her eyes tightly. It wasn't that she was specifically afraid of heights; she just didn't jump off random palaces often that were suddenly set on flames by a sociopathic snow leopard.

But once her feet touched the ground, Shifu took a hold of her waist once more and glared sternly at her. "Okay." She let out a shaky, embarrassed laugh. "Chief, I know that you're pretty skilled already, but you have _got _to teach me how to react to things like that."

Blinking amusedly, Shifu smirked teasingly and abandoned his stress for a moment. "After you teach me how to fan dance." They then were soon joined by Yuan, Junjie, and FengHuang, and the five warriors managed to save several villagers from Su Wu's ground troops. After they managed to chase down and pursue Su Wu at Gongmen Jail, they stopped to take a breather at the gleaming entrance. Out of the blue, Shifu attempted to imitate the red panda's moves, and Xiang chuckled at his silly dance. She revealed the fan that she danced with earlier and spun around him. "Did you learn from your mother?"

"Nah, some villager with a loud-mouth but twinkly toes was graceful enough to teach me up to five years of techniques in a week. I guess I'm just a fast learner."

"How do you dance so…cautiously," Shifu tentatively asked.

"Don't be such a dance drone," Xiang replied in a teasing tone then abruptly tripped, only to have Shifu try to save her by grabbing her left hand. But the impact of the klutzy fall made Shifu land on top of Xiang. He would've gotten off of her and resumed to the mission immediately, if he didn't meet those stunning jungle green eyes that held the sense of compassion and adventure. Xiang wasn't so focused herself, as she felt herself peacefully drown in his sky blue eyes. She stood on her tiptoes, as he gingerly leaned closer and sought her lips. But of course, Yuan was there to bicker at the two.

"Um, you guys do realize that there's a master in there being threatened already by that cat?" Yuan squawked and ruffled his feathers in their dazed faces. "HELLO! Buddy, I don't know WHAT you see in her, but I promise that you two can go somewhere private AFTER this whole mess!"

"Yuan," Xiang gasped and promptly spat a handful of reddish brown feathers out of her mouth. "Was that a _selfless_ plea?" Yet, she inwardly thanked the rooster for waking her out of her selfish crush for Shifu. That was what it was anyway from the start! She just met this guy one afternoon at the tournament, for crying out loud! And even if it wasn't already a rejected idea, Shifu, being the clever red panda he was, knew how to tease her so to make her believe such things.

After nodding in agreement, the five warriors entered the tall prison. And as clear as day, Su Wu greeted them at the center of the jail and petting a trembling Master Chao. "Good evening once again warriors. I do have to admit that I am rather disappointed in you_ young _warriors. I almost believed that you were able to beat an old snow leopard here. "

Xiang shrugged absentmindedly and viewed the bottoms of her sandals. "You look too…stunning to be called old." The warm compliment made Su Wu frown threateningly.

"What do you want, kid? If you're willing to trade yourself for Master Chao, I'm all ears."

"I still have one very critical question," Xiang continued. "Why do you need_ all_ of us? Lady, isn't it kinda a waste of you and your soldiers' time. Think about it!"

Su Wu simply blinked, puzzled at how calm and reserved she looked. Usually, warriors would clench their fists and snarl at her for harming others, like the little rodent next to her, or hide their fears in silence, like the gulping and choked Master Chao. "Are you sure you're a warrior, kid?"

"Are you a queen of complete darkness or just an embezzler for the diamonds and jades," Xiang continued to stall. Shiu then notice her right pinky pointing to Master Chao from behind her back and he quickly understood.

"My point exactly," Xiang pressed on, and Su Wu's face grew bright red. "Why are you being so catty to all of us masters? Seriously, it's pretty pathetic to harms us masters when we've done absolutely NOTHING to you! But if you actually do, then karma will hit you back in the-" A small figure in a tan jumpsuit landed in front of her and leapt to slap Su Wu. The snow leopard staggered back for a split second, before jumping the figure with her soldiers and two sisters in pursuit. Once Su Wu had accidentally dropped the shaky Master Chao, FengHuang gently cradled him in her soft wings and returned to the others. After making sure the cost was clear, Shifu and the other warriors escaped Gongmen Jail and fled to the nearest bamboo forest.

"What about the city," Junjie asked Shifu.

"Do not worry, for the warrior that you have just witnessed is the leading hero of the City of Blissful Fragrance; Lady Wind Song. I've read about her about three times when studying the twenty…seventh scroll of the a thousand scrolls."

"You have to read THAT much? I am doomed for all time!"Yuan flopped on the earth brown dirt with a 'distressful' wing on his forehead.

The other four masters let out small laughs, and Xiang tapped Shifu's shoulder. "Hey I know it's late, and you all are on the verge at snapping at me for asking so much. But…" Shifu whirled to Xiang to cup her chin gently and pursed his lips. "I may regret this motion for the rest of my troublesome life, Xiang. Of course, you couldn't say that I didn't warn you."

"I was going to say the same about you." She fiddled with the cuffs of her dress and sighed. "My life has gone through several changes from the spoiled princess to the second-hand worried waitress, and now, a proud warrior of Kung Fu! "I know that you masters are all stony and all. Yet when I see you….I only see a master of honor, not a master for honor. I respect you as a master, but can I really trust this fling as a…."

Her soft lips suddenly felt Shifu's, and they both had tingles in their butterfly-filled bellies. Then, they heard soft whimpers and turned to the eagle owl master. "No no," FengHuang sniffed. "Go on; don't mind me! I NEED to see some of that!"

"I don't," Junjie grunted, as he gazed at the now dusty clouds overpowering Gongmen city's skies. "Look's like the royal peacock family has to do more renovations than they planned to complete!"

"I hope they're alright and…" Xiang's eyes became visually darker in fear. "And Mama…" Shifu hugged her tenderly and breathed in her lotus blossom scent.

"Let's just make camp here, and we'll then start for the ports of Xiao city," Shifu announced to the other warriors. Every one of them obeyed the command, except for a feather-raised Yuan.

"Look Shee, how do you expect us only five to bring back the rest of the warriors?"

"The same way Master Flying Rhino bet his own life for Master Chao and Master Yao. Sometime in the worst of battles, the bravest are needed to…'test out' the device." Once FengHuang had managed to tuck the stuttering Master Chao, and Junjie draped the groups' only and best quilt.

Soon, everyone had resumed to their meditative or slumber. However, Xiang noticed Shifu was trying to balance on a very breakable stick and laughed out loud. He turned to her in humiliation, and the stick snapped and spanked Xiang in the rear. The red pandas giggled at their foolish, clumsy habits and smiled at each other.

"I'm EXTREMELY glad that I am here," Xiang enthusiastically pointed out. "However, this joint needs to relax!" She held back a long sigh while looking at the calm, peaceful, and inattentively meditating red panda. His sandy white fur glistened in the moonlight, and his huge but unique saucer-like ears were flowing gently in the moderate wind currents that night. Feeling like she was left out, Xiang grumbled to herself and planted herself next to Shifu with shut eyes.

After a minute or two, she felt the mysterious impression of being watched, and she glanced curiously at Shifu. His eyes were directly on her face, and the poor red panda master blushed at being caught in the act. "See anything you like," she flirted, yet she quickly shut her mouth. Truth be told, Xiang had never flirted with _any_ guy before! Through her younger years, Xiang had a few spring or summer flings. But nevertheless, she never took guys seriously. And now, she was absolutely attentive to the one master who barely took _her_ seriously!

Feeling now a little guilty, Xiang turned back to Shifu. "Sorry, I'm just a little hyper after that whole situation with Su Wu."

"And there will be MORE to _come,_" Shifu snapped quietly to her, so that the other masters couldn't hear them. "So, this kind of manipulating display is absolutely and positively unnecessary!" Xiang's eyes found her feet, and she timidly crossed her feet together.

"I-I promise I'll never-" Shifu cupped her chin, so that her eyes connected with his.

Leaning into her right ear, Shifu bit back a smile. "I didn't say that I would never allow it," he whispered huskily. He leaned back to see her priceless, puzzled reaction.

"Then…what happens next?" She actually did it to tease him bonkers, but the very possibility of a strongly committed and heroic master like Shifu being drawn to her seemed foreign in her mind. She then frowned stubbornly at the seemingly impossible belief. "Chief, just tell me what you are up to before I start believing you-" He forcefully snatched her waist and looked at her straight in the eye.

"Believe in the master and no one else." He kissed passionately under a now firework-lit sky. Surprised by the sudden environmental outburst, Shifu ended the kiss and didn't notice Xiang's pout. "Must be a saying of thanks to Lady Wind Song."

"I have got to meet that woman," Xiang declared, as she settled in for the night on a smooth stone. "Goodnight, Shifu."

"What? No nickname for your first?"

"Who said you were my first," Xiang smirked mischievously with shut eyes.

"Well my dear." Shifu patted her head like a child but with a loving grin. "I was just making sure that we were even steven on not being our first firsts." But deep inside his being, Shifu couldn't deny that that red panda was the best kisser he'd encountered. And for a few moments in his sleep, he knew that she was going to mean more to him than some framed fling.

_In a small hut in the City of Blissful Fragrance…._

"Either I was drunk or I had just seen my only daughter. And I sent you here because I had hoped that you'd give me hints about was is to come." The elderly goat peered at the masked red panda with wide amber eyes, knowing full and well whom she was. It wasn't common for citizens, more specifically women, to prance around in a tan jumpsuit with pocket knifes.

"I believe I can be of your assistance, Lady Wind Song. Your daughter is now a warrior herself, is she not?"

"Dang! And Ai wasn't exaggerating when she had said you were beast at fortune telling!" The red panda whistled but then tripped on a random ceramic bowl, revealing her pale, lovely face. The Soothsayer grinned at her 'caught redhanded' reaction.

"I am 'beast' at fortune telling," the Soothsayer chuckled and revealed a vial of clear liquid. "But as the Soothsayer, I also special in the arts of clairvoyance and precognition."

"Dang. Is there anything you _can't _do?" The Soothsayer had suddenly thrown a jade-looking substance into a clear bowl and stirred it with a powdered blue spoon. Clouds of cool colors swarmed around the two women and the tiny room. The mist formed the shapes of two intertwined red pandas being swarmed by several animals, mostly gorillas and pythons.

"If you do not make amends with your worst enemy, your daughter will vanish at the hands of her one and only true love." Yan Mei gasped and glared at the Soothsayer. With her clenched fists, she waved away the misty figures and smiled wryly at the Soothsayer.

"There's no way you can prove that. I may not be the best mother, but I now know that my daughter is as attentive as Boqin and as stubborn as me. And with that random guy at her side, she's got nothing to loose!"

"You'r incorrect," the Soothsayer shook her head sympathetically. "You also will loose something if you continue to deny my prediction."

"All said and done," Yan Mei huffed and held her right palm out to the elderly goat for her money back. Glancing at the clear vial in her hooves, the Soothsayer withdrew the vial to her. "What? Do you suggest I poison myself"?"

"No, dear. You just look like you need some of this water. Forgive me, it's hard for me to stop using my vials and bowls for everyday purposes."

_In an unknown location…_

"Someone has snatched the leopard brat," a voice shrilled. "We need her to blackmail the newer runts and our newest slaves."

"Why? Those 'slaves' have the mindsets of a mule or even oxes! They'll never surrender his title as a master just for some comrades he'd just met like _what_? A day ago!"

"Than who do you suggest we get Wannie Wu," a third voice asked tauntingly with a dry smirk and unleashed claws.

"The male rodent," Wan Wu dumbly asked, only to be slapped and clawed in the face by the second snow leopard, Wing Wu.

"You're forgetting that he injured a fifth of our trips by himself in Gongmen City! Getting the runt in chains would be as hard as chaining Master Flying Rhino to a stake! And that is why we need the _bird_!"

"The bird?"

"No, the rooster," Wing Wu boosted sarcastically. "Listen sisters, Master FengHuang is prideful, beautiful, and the perfect manipulating tool!" A paw slammed on the wooden table where the three Wu sisters sat. A malicious grin formed on Su Wu's lips, and her left crystal blue eye glistened with greed.

"Sisters," she drawled smoothly. "I do admit that your claims are tempting. However, remember our little pretty face we love to use? Miss Yan Mei?"

"Yeah," Wan Wu scoffed.

"And what about her," Wing Wu muttered bitterly. Both of the snow leopards despised Yan Mei's strong will and stunning, two qualities that greatly contrasted with most of their troops.

Smiling evilly, Su Wu unleashed the fan of a certain red panda back at Gongmen City. "Do you two not remember the red panda with green eyes? Didn't she seem…familiarly bold?" It took a moment before the sisters could mirror their older sister's wicked grin.

"You're saying that we need the female rodent," Wan Wu assumed.

"As our next employee," Wing Wu chirped.

Nodding, Su Wu predatorily approached two unconscious masters, a muscular snow leopard and a snoring elephant. Lifting her claws and barely whisking their faces, Su Wu bit back a cackle of sickening glee. "With the female rodent, the male one will come to her aid as well as her friends. And even though that little snow tranp is still missing, I'm sure that news will soon spread fast about their friends, don't you?" Su Wu let out a horrific cackle, and her sisters' followed along.

"Not now, Ma," Xiaoli mumbled in his sleep. "Stop…five more minutes..."

_In the present…._

Shifu was terribly annoyed with Xiang, for she was sleeping late once more. It was already late in the morning, and the warriors' master had planned on setting further at dawn. He grunted in Xiang's direction and roughly shook her up. "Wake up now," Shifu chipped tensely.

She stirred quietly after the seventeenth trial and took a moment to stare confusingly at Shifu.

"What?" She shook her head and mumbled 'good morning' to a yawning giant panda.

"What's with Xiang," Po asked Shifu, as they both gazed at the silent red panda.

"I do not know," Shifu whispered to himself. Yet with one look at Po, Shifu stood straighter and spoke in a bolder, louder voice. "Students, we must leave _now._" The masters immediately had risen from their slumbers. "Master Tigress, will you fetch Xiang for us?" Two days ago, Shifu would've left her out in the hills of criminal stallions. However, a sparkle in her gaze that once puzzled and drove him mad longer than he could've remembered had vanished that morning. And because of some hidden, crazy feeling that rose in his chest, Shifu was dying to get it back.


	11. Debates and Discussions

Debates and Discussions

**Just to warn you guys, Shifu's going to be harsh in this chapter. You see, I figured that the age when he was younger was the 'time **_**before **_**being a stern and stressed master,' like the Golden Age in Ancient Greece. But since the present time is after the 'strict age,' Shifu's still going to be a bit more stern and confused along the lines.**

_Back to Shifu and Xiang…._

It took a full month to find Master Dog and MingZhu, for they were hidden in the depths of the Northern Mountains. They carried them back to the Jade Palace, yet the golden retriever assured them that he could just follow along fine without further assistance. Xiang always gulped every time she stared at MingZhu's frostbitten body being limply supported by Junjie. Why oh why did they take so long to come to some snowy peak to rescue her best friend? The red panda almost sighed wistfully at herself at the memory of MingZhu painting a sloppy but very detailed painting of a peak in a harsh blizzard.

Once they dragged their selves to the front of the legendary Jade Palace, the whole crew had a pretty nasty dilemma thanks to the naiveness of 'newbies'.

"There is no way in China that you bozos will make me drag my rear up that murder rate of stairs!" FengHuang rolled her violet eyes at the rooster, smirked as she made sure Chao was still asleep, and flew. "Oh wow, fly time! Way to improve your modesty skills!"

Meanwhile, Xiang wasn't doing any better with Shifu and Junjie. "How is this even legal? I mean, there are…I'm guessing around a gazillion or ultra gazillion stairs up that killer mountain!"

"Quit complaining." Junjie dashed up a couple hundred stairs with a startled MingZhu at his side before glaring back at them. "The sooner we start, the sooner it'll be over with." But before Shifu could follow, Xiang tapped his right ear.

"Hey," Xiang put on a sweet smile with batted eyes. "Do I see before me a strong master who's willing to carry a damsel up that mountain of stairs?"

"No I think you see an impatient master who might want to be carried by another for the sake of it," Shifu teased back, while jumping in Xiang's grasp. Even when she was startled, both red pandas were somewhat surprised to see her easily carry Shifu bridal style. Shrugging off the weird tension of it all, Xiang dashed with delicate feet up the stairs. After Shifu had managed to count around half of the stairs, he suddenly jumped off and threw Xiang in the air.

"What GIVES?" Yelping and cursing, the frizzled Xiang soon landed in the other red panda's arms. "What was that?" Ignoring her spat, Shifu sprinted up the stairs while praying that a pair of earplugs would appear out of nowhere. But after what seemed like an eternity, Shifu carefully laid Xiang on the front steps of the Jade Palace's Sacred Hall of Warriors and rubbed his sore ears.

"Do you ever learn to keep quiet?"

"Keep QUIET? You threw me, caught me and…" Xiang trailed off, baffled at how innocent his actions sounded to her lips. "Why?"

"I figured that it was fair enough to let you be carried half the way," Shifu explained, as he gentlemanly helped her up. "After all, we all deserve to have equal and fair shares of hard work. Do we not?"

Smiling at his sincere words but then frowning, Xiang's left ear twitched in guilt. "Chief…Shifu, I kind of owe you an apology for being the bugger in this mission."

Frowning back, Shifu shook his head in doubt. "No you don't! I-"

"Good afternoon, my students. I see that you all have rescued the rest of the retired masters." From the shimmering current that laid under the statue of a golden dragon, the cheerful Master Ooway emerged with two retiring masters, Master Flying Rhino and Master Viper. "These masters have also described how amazingly two red pandas fought in what is now the Valley of Woe."

Flushing, Xiang timidly bowed to the three masters. "Um…Look, I'm not so hot with all this mystical techniques of saying 'thank you'. She flapped her arms in emphasis. "But, well, I only helped Master Shifu." She gingerly put her arm around his shoulders and beamed at him. "So, _he_ really deserves all the honorable talk."

Eyeing at how much Shifu was avoiding everyone's gazes, Oogway let out a small laugh and approached the fragile masters who needed care."Master Junjie; please tend to Master Chao's right knee with the nursing kit in the guest bedroom. I do believe that a stitch needs to be sewn. Master FengHuang; pour MingZhu a warm bath in the bathhouse with as much heat as you can possibly attain. Master Shifu and Master Yuan; these two masters need to speak with you privately at how to rescue the two last masters and meet the weasels for the attack."

"What about me, uh, sir," Xiang hesitantly asked Oogway.

"I need to speak with you, young one." He gave a nod to the other masters, and they bowed before rushing to their tasks. Once they had all left the Sacred Hall, Oogway ushered for Xiang to follow him outside to a small, sloping hill that held a tree full of juicy peaches.

"Ah thanks!" Xiang flipped up the nearest branch of the tree to retrieve two round peaches. Flipping back down, she withdrew a peach to the grinning turtle master. "I could use a snack…" The red panda took a huge, scrumptious bite of the sweet peach in her palms.

"Indeed," the wise turtle let out a chuckle. "Especially here next to the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom." Xiang almost dropped the fruit, the _sacred_ fruit in her hands, and she gently put it down. But once she saw Master Oogway take a juicy bite from the peach she had give him, Xiang rolled her eyes and ate her peach once more.

As they ate, Oogway's emerald eyes were glued to afternoon skies. "My, time flies at such a rapid and unnoticed pace. Do you not agree,young one?"

"Oh, I do!" She grew more timid at awkward thought that was questioned in her mind. "Master Oogway, how-"

"I am older than Kung Fu itself." Xiang gawked at the response and stared at the turtle in Tai Chi.

"No, really. But, how old _is _Kung Fu?"

"A couple hundred centuries old, I do assume. And yet people them selves do change in these times."

"Master have you changed so much in these…centuries," Xiang asked slowly but earnestly.

"Why yes." He drew the shape of a decorative fan in the dirt with his skirt. "And I believe that one of my students has grown quite fond of you." Xiang's eyes boggled. The old-aged turtle master had somehow knew all along as he stayed in the palace all the dang time!

"How….Never mind. There's nothing crazy or exciting in these lives of ours, master. And even if we don't even know that it't there, we know that it's just a simple friendship."

"Oh…very well then." Master Oogway began to walk away from the hill until Xiang began to follow him. "You fear your father's approval," Oogway knowingly stated.

"I haven't written to baba in days!" She slumped and sat near the peach tree and leaned her head on its surprisingly soft bark. "It's just that with all of this-he'd drag me back home-I'd never see them- GAH!" Xiang cleared her head with one slap on both cheeks, and sighed. "That helps the mind, not the face."

"Your father…yes I remember Boqin Zhu. He has such a worrisome mind, hmm?"

"When does he not," Xiang mumbled gruffly.

"He would persist and follow his beloved Yan Mei for years and years. She hesitated for only a while before admitting her equal feelings for him." Oogway sighed contently and leaned back on the peach tree next to Xiang while standing. "They were so young…rescuing their comrades, but nonetheless being committed to each other. It kind of remind you of another blooming couple that has deserved the thanks and admiration of two older masters."

It was either Master Oogway's hinting smirk or the hint about the two older masters that made Xiang let out a giggle. "You actually think that Shifu and I are like….Baba and Mama?"

_In the Jade Palace's kitchen on that same day…._

"Here's the plan, students." Master Viper revealed a well-written scroll and cleared his throat. "The twin weasel masters have reported that they have not been kidnapped yet but probably will soon from the sudden clans of harsh gorillas awakened by Su Wu. Apparently, the snow leopard has promised revenge for the gorillas with their new slaves from Southeast Asia. Do you two remember the tale behind these gorillas?"

"They were once guards of several popular provinces until they whiffed the horrific vial of Chen's tears," Shifu responded. "It washed away every particle of their memories. And since the provinces were too baffled to unleash suitable answers, the gorillas were left with the choice to believe that all of China had punished them to become forgetful of their pasts. With rage and soon insanity, they attacked several villages."

"And then do you know how Master Oogway defeated them," Master Flying Rhino tested.

"Hit them hard with several sticks and let the villages pulverize them silly," Yuan guessed with a small smile. Giving the rooster a glare, Shifu continued.

"Master Oogway locked the gorillas in Zhong Povince's hidden and abandoned schools which is similar to a huge, layered, confusing maze. There, the gorillas have stayed there for several years."

"Why didn't the old reptile just kill them off," Yuan blurted out.

Ignoring the rooster, Master Flying Rhino revealed a map of all of China. "This." He pointed at a noticeable cave near Zhong Province. "This is the Wu fortress in the dead center of Hubei Volcano. If we can just get access through the strict border guarded by several bandits, we'd be able to save your comrades."

"You're saying that we must act like circus performers, master?"

Master Flying Rhino laughed a bit too warmly. "Not at all, Master Shifu. In fact, I believe that it'd be safer if only you two came along with us."

Feeling guilty for leaving someone special behind and seeing the comical pout of Yuan's face, Master Shifu cleared his throat. "With all due respect masters, I ask that you replace Yuan's position in the mission with Master Xiang."

"YES! I mean uh….Sure, masters."

Grinning to each other, both Master Viper and Master Flying Rhino exited the kitchen with the two younger masters.

_In the present….._

Only Shifu and Xiang were up the next morning at an empty meadow, and a bothersome headache edged around in Xiang's poor mind. It was enough to have to keep Po and Tigress' little secret, but now the red panda was seeing things! Last night, she had the most shocking and yet most peaceful dream of her crouching next to a bleeding Shifu. Perhaps it was best of her to ask what in the world Po put into those dumpling dishes at breakfast.

Sadly, Shifu broke the silence during their trail first. "Something is troubling you."

She walked faster so that she can get away from Shifu, yet he flipped over her and grabbed her tense shoulders. Eyeing the circles under her jungle green eyes, Shifu nodded and mumbled, "nightmares."

Xiang let out a grim giggle and shoved him off. "Yeah, and like you'd care, master." But right after she did, Shifu whirled her back to face him and glared at her.

"For some bewitched reason, I cannot help but feel that it involves me to know what you've been dreaming about." This made Xiang laugh louder and more mockingly.

"It's always about the bold MASTER, huh?"

"Is it?" Xiang paused from her laughing fit, gazed into his eyes, and crashed her lips on his. Taken aback and completely caught off guard, Shifu fell on his back. The impact awakened both of the red panda's senses, yet Shifu was quicker enough to roughly push Xiang off him.

"And WHAT was THAT?" Tears, visible tears, were now clearly seen in Xiang's eyes, and Shifu's enraged expression quickly softened. As she sobbed, Shifu stoked her back in an attempt to calm her down. "I'm-" Xiang embraced him before he could mutter an honest apology.

"You idiot," Xiang sobbed. "You do not know how much I've missed you."


	12. Chases and Charms

Chases and Charms

_To the rest of the gang…_

"Alright," Po gulped, as several pythons chained his ankles. "So we've somehow been paralyzed in our sleep by these bandits and are about to be taken to their secret hideout. Tigress, there's a bright side to this! They haven't' kidnapped-" The tigress kicked Po's feet, and the main gorilla roared with laughter.

"Dude, are you sure that she's, you know, tame enough?" His laughter only increased when Tigress tired to lunge at him before he injected her with the paralyzing poison. His sharp, yellow eyes turned to a tense primate. "And what's your story? Single shoot in the banana still, huh?"

"Why don't you just sock that smirk of yours before I gladly do it for you!" Cackling at the three warriors' attempts to move again. He then patted another gorilla's shoulder and shushed the warriors like they were going children.

"Now, now. you mustn't let the two loves hear," he cackled moronically and ushered his team to dump the warriors on a rickety crate. "They have a bigger thing coming for them anyway. Oh, how I cannot ever wait to see their heartbroken faces!"

"Why are you so intent on hurting therm," Tigress snarled from the crate, as it began to set South.

"Simple babe. It's because of those brats that that turtle imprisoned us again for thirty stinking years!" The main gorilla grabbed Tigress by the collar of her red vest and smiled predatorily at her. She put on her straightest face, even when she felt slightly frightened at how wickedly his yellow eyes gleamed. "We also lost half of our relatives in that schoolhouse," he whispered. "And do you know why I don't have a name?"

"It's because you're too stupid to remember it," Tigress remarked cleverly. With one punch, the tiger feline was sent back to the crate in a semi-broken heap next to her two comrades.

"Close kitty close. But it's also because two of your little masters caused all this-" Near the meadow, the booming gong of a nearby, rural village was heard. In fear of being discovered once more, the main gorilla snapped at his buddies and python slaves to get a move on and whirl the crate along with them.

"Xiang is not a master," Monkey pointed out to himself.

Sighing next to Tigress, Po knew what he had to do. "Er, Tigress? He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"If I wasn't paralyzed," Tigress whispered so that the bandits wouldn't hear. "I would either display sarcasm or even hit you for saying such a thing. Po, I'm still Master Tigress; I'll be alright, and you should only be concerned about yourself in times like these."

"But what about Shifu and Xiang?"

"Shifu will protect Xiang, and Xiang's not an ordinary villager, Po. They'll survive, as long as they are able to keep a good distance." Unsure of her words, Po decided that a warrior must do what he must.

"You'll be okay then?"

"Absolutely."

"Even without me?"

"Even-wait." Tigress' beautiful amber eyes widened at the sight of Po moving and was shocked to figure out that he had a remedy to the trick, while she and Monkey didn't.

"H-How…" Monkey trailed off. With one mouthed 'no fair,' he pouted and crossed his arms.

Out of the blue, Tigress' small nose began to itch. "Um, Po," she beckoned nervously. "My, um, nose…." The giant panda immediately understood her plea and gently scratched her nose. "Go on then. Even if you can carry us both, they'd pursue us once more."

With one longing peck on Tigress' lips, Po easily and stealthily hopped off the quick crate and stumbled off to find his master and villager. Tigress' eyes were pealed on the back of Po's soft head in the grassy fields. With one involuntary sniff, Tigress mumbled to herself. "Now I don't feel so alright. Darn it, Po You better stay away from danger."

_To Shifu and Xiang in the present…._

Ending the embrace, Xiang smiled sweetly at the twitching Shifu. "Are-are you okay?"

"Well," Shifu mirrored her smile mockingly, stood up, and stared at the windy meadow. "Imagine this, my dear. Imagine you being a master in his fifties, not to mention a father, meeting a crazy villager in his home, having to drag her with three young masters, and having to deal with her intolerant mood swings." He faked a laugh and pulled Xiang coolly to him to get the message clear in her mind. "When will I ever in this forsaken lifetime be okay?"

Sniffing a little, Xiang now backed away from him with a disappointed and longing look in her eyes. "So you…don't remember…"

"Remember what?" Mentally cursing himself at his own ignorant question, Shifu's mind rewound back to the sudden kiss from the villager."Oh that. Well….sorry?"

Xiang giggled shyly at his apology and put her tiny hands into his trembling ones. "It's okay, chief. I wouldn't expect such an occupied, busy master to remember a simple, crazy villager again like me."

'Chef, chief?' His mind endlessly chanted the single word. 'What's so important about one single word,' he desperately screamed in his stressed mind. Suddenly, images of him as a young adult, several familiar young masters, and his Xiang appeared. They saved the older masters, a couple was wedded, and a proposal was….denied? Clutching his throbbing head, Shifu staggered away from Xiang and dashed away into the tall grass.

"Shifu!" Xiang pursued him with equally fast feet. The two red pandas were keen and accurate in their little chase. With a sly smirk, Shifu had spotted a fallen tree branch that Monkey could've fit in and effortlessly threw it behind his shoulders. Cursing at the branch that was thrown at her and had almost crushed her, Xiang let out a humorless cackle. "You know, you're hot when you're confused and running from me." And once she saw him dumbly pause to absorb her words with a gawk, Xiang shoved him into a pile of pine needles and giggled at how porcupine-like Shifu looked. She was even about to lift him out of it, but Shifu found a loophole and twirled her away from him.

The chase continued near a raging water of raging waters and gossiping guppies. Shifu flipped on one of the highest rocks above an ominous waterfall and jokingly pouted at where Xiang was. Confused, Shifu whirled around in search of Xiang, before he felt an innocent tap on his left shoulder. Xiang smiled mischievously at him and dunked him into the roaring waters purposely without dropping or drowning him. "You're exactly as I remember you, chief. Gosh, clam down! It's only water-AHHHH!" He suddenly had dragged Xiang with him down the waterfall, as he felt her grip on his robe loosen. And once Xiang had slipped on the slippery rock and failed to reach back to pull them both up, both red pandas plummeted into the waters below.

"YOU IDIOT!"

"OH SO THE MOUSE OF THIS CHASE GETS BLAMED?"

"WHO ELSE?" They both suddenly grabbed ahold of each other, and Xiang shut her eyes, as they fell and fell closer to the raging currents below. But to their shock, a strong figure had leapt into the rivers, making the current send them back on land with one wave's force. Dripping wet, Shifu lightly shook and switched sides in an attempt to get the water out of his large ears. Meanwhile, Xiang squeezed her ears like someone would to their fair share of hair.

Then, a damp warrior of black and white stood before them and sheepishly chuckled. "I guess that was a bit too strong of a rescuing dive-"

"A bit? Po, that 'dive' of yours-"

"-Saved our lives," Xiang finished curtly with a kind smile. "And we-" She tugged Shifu's left arm. "-We are grateful."

Giving up, Shifu gruffly mumbled a "yes."

"So Po, what's the deal?"

Visibly shaking at her question, Po laughed out loud. "W-Why would you think there was a deal? I was only taking a little skinny-bear dip, well you know, with shorts and pure bodacious-ness-"

"Po," Xiang interrupted knowingly.

"Tigress-Monkey-and-I-were-paralyzed-in-our-sleep-and-I-was-somehow-immune-to-it-so-I had-to-leave-them-and-find-you-two!"

"Um…" Xiang turned to Shifu with an amusing and dumbfounded expression. "You heard that all, right?" Suddenly, both Po and Xiang were surprised, as Shifu let out a bemused and genuine laugh. And once he had wiped the tears out of his eyes and glanced at Po and Xiang, he chuckled again.

"I have a life too, just in case you two didn't notice. Po, which direction did they head?" Po pointed in the same direction they had originally set on enduring, and Shifu smirked. "Simple trail once more than. Please make sure that the gorilla bandits haven't grabbed _all _of our needs and basics. We'll wait out here." Nodding eagerly, Po pumped out his chest and jogged back to where he and the two other masters have slept.

Seeing his kind smile, Xiang laughed a little. "I see that you remember everything now-"

"No one can remember everything."

"Okay, you know that I mean everything we've encountered."

"I most certainly do not," Shifu scoffed. Yet after seeing her slump sadly in defeat, Shifu stole a quick kiss from her and grinned shrewdly. "I didn't say that I did not remember our…direction in life. Or wait, what is that word they use? Oh yes! I somewhat remember there being an 'us.'"

Blinking rapidly and blushing quite pink, Xiang poked Shifu in the ribs. "That was SO not cute!"

"Well." He cupped her right cheek with his right hand and patted her head with his other hand. "How does it feel to be teased so…sensually by an old foe?"

"Ha! You think you're a big tough foe! You're more like an overly confident rat!" She poked his side and decided to set on after Po. "I-uh…better check on the big guy." Yet, Shifu flipped over her and decided to set the task on his shoulders. "No, you should wait. He'd probably be able to take orders from me, his master, anyway."

"Oh." She timidly scratched the back of her head and clasped her hands together. "Then, do what you think is best, chief." Once Shifu had dashed off to the giant panda's aid, Xiang released a long, tired moan. Boy, no wonder Shifu made such an excuse! Love wasn't exactly the way parents had told their young in bedtime stories; it was an emotion that could only provide so much space for two beings alone in one vast world of memories and regrets. Xiang knew how both she and Shifu needed a break from the realization of the seed that would soon sprout into a proud tree of their unleashed memories. She also knew that they both remembered who they once were in occupations and who they befriended, but the main question at hand now was 'what caused such a powerful plot of forgetfulness?'

_Back to the past Shifu and Xiang…_

"Listen you stuffed bird," Junjie snapped to FengHuang, completely enraged at the brattish complaints he'd received from the Eurasian eagle owl. "This mission is critical, and our plan must be completely without a whiff of one flaw!"

"I don't care if Su Wu sets China on fire," FengHuang squawked, as the rest of the young warriors were able to silently inch closer to the haunting fortress of the Wu Sisters. "There's no way that you guys are going to make me flirt that revolting little imp of an ape over there just so you can your toes into the fortress! Na Uh!"

"It won't be so terrible," Shifu insisted sternly and yet also pleadingly. FengHuang eyed the red panda with amused eyes.

"Well if you think it's not that drastic, dear Shifu, get your little girlfriend to do the task."

"Oh," Xiang moaned, as Shifu quickly lead her to the ape. "Why do I always get into incidents like this?"

"Don't worry, Xiang." Junjie elbowed the frowning Shifu jokingly. "You're not going to be the one ticking and blowing off on this poor guys throat. Your fists look a little stingy, eh Shifu?" As Junjie tried to restrain his erupting giggles, Shifu clicked his tongue at his now clutched, fiery red fists.

"Let's just get this over with," Yan whined, and everyone nodded in agreement. Giving Xiang a light push, Shifu beckoned her to continue confidently. Puffing out her chest and putting on a flirty grin, Xiang strolled next to the stone-faced, small ape.

"Hey there, straight shooter. You've got a good set of eyes, huh?" The small gorilla's charcoal eyes narrowed at the sight of the red panda. But with one look at her pretty face, the ape's disgusted snarl shaped into a charmed grin.

"Hi fly, doll. You're an awfully tiny little one, aren't you?"

"Yeah? And so are you, stinky!" Hearing Junjie face palm, Xiang mentally cursed herself and batted her eyes at the ape guard. "I mean…that is definitely NOT a bad quality. You see, us short women have always _longed _for some guy at our level. All those tall guys are so…arrogant, you know?" She twirled a strand of her golden white fur and leaned closer to the mustached ape. "You know what I'm saying?"

"Oh…." His eyes boggled, and the ape guard staggered slightly back. "I, uh, yeah, girl, I do." Then, the small red panda did something that made the ape guard and Shifu's jaws comically drop and their eyes peel to her form; Xiang abruptly dropped her sash and bent down to pick it up, and it was more specifically the curved round body part they eyed. Standing back up after a while of picking up the stash and brushing it while still bending, Xiang sighed and leaned closer to the ape.

"Well I guess a little lip action wouldn't hurt you, wouldn't it?" Dumbly shaking his head, the ape puckered his huge lips , and Xiang grabbed his neck. Yet before their lips could meet, Xiang quickly smashed her right fist into his mouth and used her left fist to jab him in the chest. "There's your lip action, darling. Alright guys!" The rest of the young masters appeared and tousled the uncurious ape guard in a shadowy corner of the fortress' entrance. As they sneaked closer into the center of the bubbling volcano, Shifu couldn't resist but ask her one question.

"Why did you purposely let the ape see the back of the train?" Xiang stared at him in confusion for a minute, yet she shook her head apologetically at Shifu.

"Oh, sorry. I guess it worked like a charm then. But Shifu,you know that I actually _did _accidentally drop my stash back there, right?"

**Let me know how it looks, guys. **


	13. Missions and Meetings

Missions and Meetings

**I know that the last two chapters were too mushy at some part, since this is based on two Kung Fu movies. Well, get ready for some action guys!**

_Twelve miles away in the City of Blissful Fragrance…_

"Would you like to buy a silk scarf, sir," the goose merchant chirped. "We have a fifty percent off sale on silk products from now until sundown."

"No thank you," Boqin humbly replied, as he paid the merchant. "These robes will suit me just fine." Even if he did want another item on sale, the sun's ruby red rays were now dimming and lowering into the misty clouds of evening as they spoke. Besides, Boqin didn't have time to make purchases when there was a daughter to find.

In that month of Xiang not returning home, he simply assumed that Daiyu's diner had decided to let her stay and enjoy their location as their new waitress. He sent his daughter letters concerning the distance and whether she was truly happy in Zhong Province. But after being scolded by the managers of Zhong Province and being told that she wasn't even present in their restaurant because of a 'tormenting event', Boqin realized that a mission was in order and a daughter needed to return home.

Once he gathered his formal and informal robes, Boqin decided to ask a fellow passerby for some directions. But then, a swish of black and white caught his eye and perplexed him. 'Giant pandas aren't native on these streets.' Swiftly and silently, Boqin followed the giant panda through busy streets of vigilantes with barrels, trays, and carts of goods. He even was dunked in the face by a fresh bowl of hot soup! Clicking his tongue at the flavor of his least favorite soup, spinach soup, Boqin pressed on. Then, the giant panda, preferably a female giant panda, since he saw that she was in a silver-lined white peasant dress, lead him into a long-stripped alley. She suddenly stopped, cracked her neck a little, and jumped on the poor red panda.

"Who are you," she snarled. Luckily, Boqin had dealt with disdain and fake snarls from foul characters and knew there were several differences. This giant panda wasn't a terrible person, for he knew from how her shoulders were squared and how quick her attack was that she wasn't arrogant. She was in a defensive state. "Answer me!"

"My name is Zhu, Boqin Zhu, and I am only here to ask for directions." The giant panda blushed in embarrassment, stood up, and helped him up.

"My apologizes, Mr. Zhu. My name is Ying, and I'd be happy to help a citizen with directions."

"Very good then. How far exactly is the fortress of Su Wu?" Ying observed Boqin and gave him the up and down treatment. With a shrug of her shoulders, Ying decided that it was his blood he was risking.

"It's about eleven to twelve so miles," Ying replied. "You take a right on that street over there. Then once you come to the shipping crates near the harbor, go the opposite direction of where the harbor is and continue until you find the horse wagons. There, an approved stallion will give you a ride to the Hubei Volcano itself. You may have a few struggles while climbing up there. But hey, if you think you're up for it, who am I to judge, right?"

"Thank you but…" Boqin's curiosity had gotten the best of him, and he had to ask the giant panda. "But forgive me if I offend you when asking this; why are you here? I do admit that it is rare to see a giant panda on these streets. Shouldn't you be where it's more green and less crowded?" But before Ying could respond, a sound of someone screaming for their life was heard.

"Oh roots! Excuse me, Mr. Zhu. I have a friend who needs me greatly." She impressively backflipped on the top of a straw village home and ran in the direction where the shrilling screams were heard. Boqin was suddenly not one to fight his interests today. He flipped onto the home and dashed after Ying. Finally after running for two miles after Ying once more, his eyes came upon the crime scene. Six or seven rabbit children were being abused by three particularly stranded and bored gorilla bandits. Two wolf soldiers of Emperor Chang's army had tried to attack them, yet one massive gorilla with sharper teeth had bitten one wolves' head while carelessly throwing one wolf a pretty far and deadly distance. The tax collector had the urge to show those gorillas how masters deal with scumbags like them, yet the father inside his core pleaded the master to not interfere. Ever since a certain red panda stepped on his heart, Boqin swore to never display his skills to any citizen again.

But before he was able to reluctantly turn away from the scene, Ying flung herself into the gorilla group and kicked the daylights out of them. "How in all of Ling-"

"Hey gorilla grunts!" A small red panda with luminous fur in a tan jumpsuit kicked two of the three gorillas in the face, making them scowl at her. "Ying, Ying, Ying," the red panda waved a finger across the giant panda's brown eyes. "Will you ever learn?"

Ying only crossed her huge arms and beamed at her. "Hey, I was going to save you a gorilla or two to assault. But since you're on reprimanding mode now-"

"Oh heck no! Let's get to it!" She backflipped over one charging gorilla with a mammoth hammer and used a spare scarf to choke his throat. As if the gorilla was a horse, he fell on his knees and tried to shake his rider off. Meanwhile, Ying teased one gorilla by snatching his head, nudging it several times, and using her feet to kick him where most guys never deserved to be kicked. However when the last gorilla was about to strike the cheering Ying from behind, she accidentally jabbed him in the nose, and Xiang punched him several times before he passed out. "What would you do without me my friend," she asked Ying breathlessly.

Throughout the whole fight, Boqin was still and speechless. A red panda and a giant panda were…defending the city? It was just like one of those absurd stories that his wife, Yan Mei used to tell little Xiang and- Xiang! Why was he paying attention to two female fighters when he had a daughter to find himself. "Way to go daddy," Boqin hissed to himself. But before he could find a spare stallion or remember another piece of the directions Ling had given him not too long ago, a small hand stroked his. Jumping, Boqin protectively got into a defensive stance.

"Calm down Bobo," a silky voice soothed him. "It's just me." With two twitching eyes, Boqin's hazel eyes fell on the most beautiful and clever creature he'd had ever faced in his years. "Are you going to say 'hi, Yan Mei smirked. "Or are you as stunned by my tan jumpsuit as I am of your skimpy black one."

With one pull of the tight material, Boqin stubbornly frowned at her. "It is NOT skimpy."

_In the center of Hubei Volcano…_

The Wu sisters were growing terribly impatient and ferocious. Rong and Xiaoli had promptly refused to give information on their comrades or even techniques. Even when they knew how stubborn every Kung Fu master was taught to be, they also knew an art of manipulation that could harm even the strongest of masters; hostages. Once Su Wu had found out from one sociable gorilla spy that two older Kung Fu masters from the previous Furious Five group were approaching them in a surprised assault, her plan was already set before her.

"But sister," Wan Wu asked nervously. "If they are attacking us at any time while the younger masters are retrieving the hostages, how will our plan be completely flawless?"

"Oh, Wannie! Can you not see it? It's already been set this ingenious plan!" She waved her two younger sisters to the table and smiled wickedly. "I have sent more soldiers on the side of the 'surprise' attack and only one guard on the little brats' side. That way, we are able to 'persuade' them with a few death traps, a few sudden shouts or two, the hostages, and a brief introduction." She cackled evilly, and her sisters giggled sinisterly, since they know understood the plan, too.

Finally, Wing Wu raised her thin hand. "One more thing, dear sisters. What is our main goal here?"

"The real question is 'what _are _our _goals'_, Wing. Here, let's pay our hostages a little visit so that you and they can hear the lovely set up." Su Wu and her sisters climbed with unleashed claws up a sloping wall in the volcano, avoided a few randomly skittering rocks, and slid into the hole of their hostage's enclosed cave. There, two puffy-eyed, wiggling, and heavy breathing masters were hunching in their gripping iron chains. Once one of the hostages, Rong, saw the Wu sisters approach them, he growled viciously and thrashed out at them.

"Aw," Wing Wu patted Rong's head and carelessly pulled her paw back up when he tried to bite it. "Is the wittle leppy sad because his pretty girlfriend's off her leash? Well TOO BAD!"

"Hey sisters." Wan Wu skipped toward a sweating Xiaoli and harshly pulled his snout. "Look at this wimp. He thinks he's so brave under a pair of trembling tusks! HA!"

"I do beg your pardon ladies," Xiaoli grunted intelligently. "But I humbly ask you to mind your own limbs!"

"Where's MingZhu," Rong snapped in Su Wu's face. Growling at his threatening tone, Su Wu raised her sharp left claws in front of his golden eyes. "You know joker, I've clawed exactly eight dozen innocent little faces and sometimes not-so-innocent faces. But more or less, they had it coming. I once met a cute little turtle, pretty little thing, wasn't she? Well, a beautiful or handsome face can come in handy." She eyed Rong's muscles and poked his ribs. "As so does physical strength. Anyway, I asked her to join our little team, and do you know what she said?NO! Hm, everyone in China with a mindset will now forever now to this point that the Wu Sisters She clawed Rong in the stomach and chest, and the injured snow leopard courageously clenched his teeth to hold his hisses of pain.-Do not take 'no' for an answer. We clawed her face, and she had to hold those stinging and scars of hate until her death bed!"

"So you're…" Rong wheezed. "_That_ old, eh kitty?" Su Wu would've charged Rong, if her sisters didn't hold her back.

"Don't waste your strength on these two rogues, sister," Wan Wu pleaded.

"You need to save it for the other foolish masters," Wing Wu agreed with a nod. Snarling, Su Wu reluctantly agreed with her younger sisters and exited the enclosed cave. Mimicking their sister, Wan and Wing Wu growled menacingly at the two masters and exited the cave as well.

Once they had left, both masters gave each other a questioning look. "Rong, do you actually assume that these mistresses of crime are speaking the truth?"

"I do not know, Xiaoli," Rong admitted cooly. "But if there's one thing I do know at this point, it's that our masters are not going to leave us."

"And I know another thing." Xiaoli tried to pump his right fist up enthusiastically. "We need to save ourselves for the greater good!" The snow leopard chuckled next to him, as he used almost all of his upmost and brutal strength to break the deep chains connected to the arm pits of the trapping cave.

"XIAOLI! GET BACK!" The elephant followed his comrade's actions and almost made the cave shake and release several crumbs of dust.

"WE'RE DITCHING THIS PIT!" They both yelled with booming grunts in their throbbing throats. Nearby, Wan and Wing Wu were giggling to themselves, as their older sister did a double check of all the traps and plans.

"When do you think they'll realize that it takes a password to open that sturdy cave," Wan Wu whispered to Wing Wu with a girlish giggle.

"When that goody kitty cat learns how to keep his mouth shut in front of our sister," Wing Wu replied with a feminine cackle.

_Meanwhile with the two older masters…_

Master Flying Rhino adjusted his sheer armor parts, and Master Viper randomly spat in front of their opponents', six guarding gorillas' feet. An equally random tumbleweed blew in the breeze at their spot, and the middle-aged rhino master let out a mocking laugh. "Some party, huh?"

"Shut up, rhinoce The pudgy gorilla scratched the inside of his ears and glanced at two of his fatso buddies. "How do you say it again?" Rolling his peridot eyes, Master Viper jumped and whipped his tail in the three stupid apes' faces. The threesome roared at the first move, and their buddies joined into the enraged chorus. The legendary Master Viper lost count of how many harry limbs he bit with his dripping, venomous fangs. Every one of his victims let out cries of murderous pain and fell faint. Meanwhile, the legendary Master Flying Rhino kept his narrowed eyes on every last of his pathetic opponents, as he slammed up to six at a time with one remarkable punch, kick, and even head butt. However, they were all facing a disastrous situation; it wasn't that they were too fantastic as fighters, yet there were way to many.

"How," the rhino master gulped tiredly. "How are you doing, MV?" Master Viper huffed a little exhaustingly and squeezed the head of another gorilla opponent.

"A little on the sweaty side, Rhi! Any ideas on where the party ends?" But then, the largest gorilla both warriors had yet to face glared at the viper master, stomped to both of them as the others made room, and towered over them with terrifying violet-grey eyes.

"The train ends here you nincompoops," the tallest gorilla remarked coldly and deeply in a fatherly feminine voice. She punch her right fist in her left hand's palm and took a hold of Master Flying Rhino's leg, as if he was a broken toy. She soon snatched Master Viper's throat and choked him until he turned ghostly pale.

For a minute, Master Viper had forgotten about his venomous fangs. "You're a…girl?"

"Yes, and are you two?" She buried their faces on the dusty, volcanic sands of where they stood. And with one squeeze of both her fists, both masters fainted at the terrible torture.

_Back to Shifu and Xiang…_

Once the five masters entered the gloomy, dark cave, Shifu and Junjie jumped on the nearest levels, and the girls followed in pursuit. "I still can't believe that those two masters allowed all of us to come," Xiang pointed out. "How'd you do it, chief?"

"Don't be too impressed just yet, my dear." FengHuang ruffled her feathers out and flew around the cave in search of enemies."He used his negotiating skills."

"And what were they old buddy?" As the five masters cautiously glanced in several directions and jumped closer and closer to their destination, Master Shifu was desperate while avoiding Junjie's knowing looks.

"Alright! I made a compromise with the masters that if we sweep the barracks of their new homes for two hours each day of this week, then we'll all be free to be tested in this mission."

"I'd actually rather train for two straight hours without complaints and a shut mouth than do that you fool," Yuan cawed, before FengHuang shut his irritating beak shut.

"He's right though." Xiang leapt gracefully on a spare boulder. "That so-called 'compromise' is a cheap scandal that bites back at our butts!" As the four others joined her, Shifu raised up his hands defensively.

"Look you negative nicks," Shifu announced in a low voice, just in case if an enemy was near. "Here's the rewarding part; we won't _have_ to do this chore if we accomplish the task of rescuing our comrades and imprisoning the Wu sisters." After hearing this, Yuan poked FengHuang's side to seize her grip on his tiny, yellow beak.

"Are you kidding? That's…" He took a moment to fully absorb Shifu's words and shrugged. "Ah, I got nothing."

"Seems reasonable enough," FengHuang agreed.

"Now you should know that I'm in on a plan like this pal," Junjie gave Shifu high and low fives. The red panda turned to Xiang and stared hopefully at her. Rolling her jungle green eyes at Shifu, Xiang stuck her hand out in front of him.

"Okay, as long as we get this bogus brawl over with so that I can get some shut eye _somewhere_!" She shook his hand with a confident smile and was about to resume to the mission at hand with the others, yet Junjie took her hand from Shifu and raised it to his lips.

"Be safe Xiang," Junjie mimicked Shifu's deeper voice and chuckled. But once he did so, Shifu jabbed him roughly in the ribs and seized Xiang's hand from his grasp. Smirking and satisfied with his friend's reaction, he socked him in the stomach and followed the two birds and female red panda. "Taotie was right, Shifu. You're getting it bad!" Shifu ignored him for the moment so that he could stealthily and quickly follow his comrades. But once they all slid into the center of the inactive yet bubbling and warm volcano, their eyes widened at the sight in front of them. Five massive, swirling pieces of grey-blue slate swirled around them so closely that one brushed both Shifu and Xiang's nose tips. After they stopped, several knives came from the ceiling of where they stood.

"Look out!" FengHuang threw her knives in an attempt to throw the knives coming to them off course, yet the opposing knives cut through FengHuang's knife set. One after the other, her knives were broken in half by the piercing knives. As each warrior dodged knife after knife, Junjie decided to question his comrade's choice of weaponry.

"So the knives were silver or steel or what?"

"Does it MATTER?" She flew over a series of knives and now even arrows in one direction, and Yuan tried to dodge the weapons with several yelps escaping his tongue. However, one arrow had found a loophole and landed in his left leg. Swaying dangerously slow, the rooster let out a croak before slipping into unconsciousness. The first person to see him faint was Xiang, and she summersaulted a couple of times before picking him up and continuing to dodge the weapons. Since she had a similar situation to face at the tournament, Xiang was having a fairly easier time with it than her comrades. But before things got even worse, the weapon spree ended, and several wasps and bees filled the cave to torment the warriors.

"Oh how WONDERFUL, SHIFU," Xiang yelled, as she tried to hold Yuan and shield herself from the angered insect's harmful stingers.

_Back to Boqin and Yan Mei…_

"Well whether that darn suit is skimpy or not," Yan Mei took a hold of his left hand and sprinted with Ying. "We need to save our daughter."

"Pardon?"

"Don't be so paranoid- HYA!" She punched a running villain in the jaw, making him sway and cower. "I heard that Xiang was now a master and- YAH! And needed her parents' help!" After glancing at his raised eyebrows, Yan Mei smiled sweetly. "Okay, so she really didn't say that, and I really never even heard that. But the point is is that she's a master rescuing her friends with other friends, without knowing that her parents are experts in Kung Fu as well. Clear enough for you, Bobo?"

"She's not an expert in Kung Fu," Boqin told her sternly. His wife shrugged carelessly, socked three other gorillas beside them, and viewed her fingers on both hands. "And where is she anyway?"

"In a little volcano of complete and uttered agony," Yan Mei happily responded with a wryly smile on her lips. "And don't give me that look of disgust! She's as good as saved!" But once Yan Mei had gotten far enough, Boqin massaged his temples and muttered, "This is most certainly not worth missing vacation season."

**Was it mushy or anything in this chapter? Please let me know and review!**


	14. Tribulations and Torments

_Back to Shifu and Xiang and the others…._

Once the five warriors had finally crossed through the several tormenting courses, Yuan was staggering his breath on the relentless Junjie's shoulders, and Shifu was being supported by the sweaty Xiang. "We," she breathed heavily. "Made it…." The center of Hubei Volcano was exactly what the masters besides her had expected it to be, cold, dark, terrifyingly misshapen shadows, noises, and shadows. "You know, it reminds me of my old restaurant." Everyone gave her a dumbfounded look, and the red panda shrugged her shoulders and added, "Without the random noises."

"It's a wonder how no one dies of heat stroke in this heap," FengHuang complained and fanned herself. The others ignored her comment for the moment to search for their two missing comrades. Shifu and Junjie leapt on several shapes and sizes of boulders from many of the volcano's levels, while the other three checked for secret passageways or the sudden chances of them being on ground. "Boy," Yuan sighed. "These women are clever."

"Why thank you," a feminine shrill voice thanked and tackled him in the shadows. Suddenly, several snow leopards surrounded the threesome on the ground, and two massive gorillas pinned Shifu and Junjie back on the solid grounds. In one semicircle, the felines and apes dragged the five to a shut cave and the three Wu Sisters were lazily napping in the shadows.

"Why do they get to take naps," Xiang whined and held her hand out at the arising felines.

"Silence you rodent," Wing Wu snarled, yet her older sister held her paw out to emphasis, 'silence,' and cleared her throat.

"Forgive us for our rude and hasty actions, warriors," Su Wu apologized offhandedly and observed them from head to toe. "We just felt that it was our upmost necessary duty to handle your arrival the original way, since we knew that such 'noble' warriors would refuse to come quietly. Oh, and there is more exciting news! I know quire a bit about you from my spies and witnesses." Junjie growled at her words and thrashed in her direction. "Ah, so you're the spirited little imp who's family had past away in a raging flood. How dreadfully _drenched_ your heart must be, and yet I wonder if Master Oogway knows about how you once kidnapped several innocent children for a greedy cobra as a thief." She put a sharp claw on the hissing foxes' chin. "Oh what to think!"

"You little-" Junjie was ominously red and enraged now. But before he could say any more, he was injected with paralyzing poison that also held his mouth still.

"And this must be the gorgeous Eurasian eagle owl who's wit and lovely face do do well," Su Wu complimented with a hint of envy. "Indeed, you were on my list. But Master FengHuang, I'm afraid that a dear fortune telling python of mine who has wished to be unnamed has reported dark waters in your future."

"That is impossible!"

"It isn't with too much ambition," Su Wu taunted and grinned in pleasure at FengHuang's defeated and paralyzed self. She then strolled to the rooster and simply injected him with the poison herself. "There is not much of a story behind a self-absorbed, disloyal, lousy, big-mouthed warrior like you." The four other warriors gasped, visible tears ran down Yuan's cheeks. Taking no more of this, Shifu glared at the snow leopards.

"Enough of your bewitching taunts from our flaws," Shifu shouted. "Show us Master Rong and Master Xiaoli!"

"Save it for a villain who actually cares," Su Wu cackled in Shifu's face and lifted him up with one paw. "You think that just because you treat Master Oogway like a father and mentor that he'll automatically accept you as a future grandmaster of the Jade Palace! HAH! When your hopeless mother past away, you weren't even able to get your REAL father to love you!"

"Let's just cut to the chase," Xiang snapped threateningly at the sisters with darker green eyes and irritation. "Why did you drag us all here instead of attack us all for the comrades that you have? To mock us? Taunt us? Give us advice on how we pay for our graves. Ooh! If I do die, can I be cremated? All that burying crud is totally unnecessary and-" Wan and Wing Wu's hands had quickly slapped on Xiang's mouth. But before they could inject her body and mouth shut, Su Wu ushered for them to release her.

"Sisters, apes, we'll need her word of consent on our negotiation."

"Okay," Xiang cracked her neck and lazily stretched her arms. "I'm starving because we didn't have dinner, and I'm also kind of lost on this whole 'evil' set up you got here. Do you guys at least have some fiendish diner nearby?"

"No," one pathetic gorilla responded to her. "But I think we have a snack bar near the-"

"SILENCE!" Su Wu massaged her forehead and slowly circled the held Xiang. "You lack fear of my fellow comrades, sisters, and even I. And yet, you're as strong and noble as any of these frustrated masters. You'd make a wonderful…persuader. Am I right, my sisters?" Wan and Wing Wu nodded and pointed out their thoughts.

"You have a beautiful set of eyes and golden fur," Wing Wu gushed with jealousy looming in her eyesight.

"Indeed and look at this tail!" She was about to poke it, before Xiang snatched it away.

"Okay." Xiang was somewhat freaked out and worried about where they were going. "So, what's the bait and catch?"

"You don't need to be one prim warrior Xiang," Su Wu loped her left arm around the small red panda's shoulders. "You'd be better off as a mani-_persuader._ You'd get your own uniform, have a few laughs, and once in a while show me the money."

"You mean.." The pieces of the puzzle had finally spelled the fiendish criminals' message. "You want me to use my 'good' looks and 'charm', me as in Xiang, so that you can get your paws on wealth, fame, lands, etc?" She giggled a little bit to everyone's shock and slumped next to Shifu. "Lady, you've been hanging around the heated spots of fortress too long, huh?"

Blinking and growling at the red panda, she grabbed her throat and tapped her throat with the tips of her claws. "For all of my years of being a criminal," she whispered darkly. "No animal has gave me such a ridiculous and pointless answer as you just did. YES OR NO?"

"Nes?" Su Wu threw Xiang in the dust, snatched Shifu's throat, and held him high in the air, as if her were a piece of meat waiting to be sacrificed to predators. "Hey," Xiang warned, as she brushed herself up and grew frustrated. "Let Shifu go. He has nothing to do with this!"

"On the contrary," Su Wu purred with pleasure while observing how frightened Xiang was looking at Shifu. "Since he's your one and true weakness, I say that his presence in your decision is fairly accepted." Since the poor red panda was paralyzed, Su Wu was free to toss and kick him around like a football.

"STOP," Xiang pleaded. Suddenly, the enclosed cave behind them rattled and shook madly. And before the Wu Sisters or any of the soldiers or masters had time to react, two dusty masters broke the fourth wall of the cave with triumphant smirks on their faces.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen," Xiaoli greeted brightly. "It's such a loverly and marvelous day! Isn't it?"

"They ESCAPED," Wan and Wing Wu both simultaneously shouted with fury and attacked the two warriors. But before their claws could brush the warriors' faces, Su Wu snapped her fingers and winked at Xiang.

"Good evening warriors and congratulations, you were FINALLY able to escape the cave with a password. Unfortunately, you're not the only guests this evening. Another cave slid open to two beaten up and bruised masters, Master Flying Rhino and Master Viper being held by a mammoth gorilla. All of the warriors physically or inwardly gasped at the sight of their fallen leaders.

"You're such a sadistic HAG," Xiang yelled at Su Wu and turned scarlet red, as the snow leopard only cackled demonically at her insult.

"You think that's it?" Two more caves slid open to a grunting warthog with a limp snow leopard in his grasp and three imprisoned animals in the arms of three wicked gorilla. Both Shifu and Junjie's mouths twitched at the sight of Taotie's frowning face, as he handed the unconscious MingZhu to Wing and Wan Wu.

"You're both fools for not realizing from the start that Master Oogway disapproved of me, especially YOU, SHIFU!" He poked the red panda in the ribs accusingly. "You had the nerve to never care or even notice how much your so-called master disapproved of me! You were too busy training with this butt-faced fox and with this girlfriend of yours, who'll soon give you up to avoid the streets! And you KNOW what this means-" He sat on a square rock and pulled out a bag of buttered popcorn. "It means that I watch all of your worthless and yet so 'honorable' deaths with a pay check from the Wu Sisters!"

"Why you harry snouted-" Su Wu snapped her fingers once more to the third runner-ups. Boqin, Yan Mei, and Ying were in iron chains that weighed at least fifteen pounds on each wrist. The giant panda tried to support the dragged red pandas, yet the gorillas were socking her every time she had tried, and a little untold secret had prevented her from continuing.

"MAMA! BABA!" This time, it took seven gorillas to pin the struggling, wiggling, and teary-eyed red panda in one spot. Meanwhile, Boqin and Yan Mei were equally as desperate.

"Release her Su," Yan Mei warned sternly. "She's of no use to you."

"Oh she is Yan Mei, unlike you egotistical, impulsive runt like you!" She was about to slap the red panda when that red panda's husband abruptly tripped her in the sands. Letting out a grim cackle, Su Wu clawed Boqin's left side and watched in glee as both the red panda's wife and daughter's faces fell in concern and fear. "Well then Xiang, what will it be? Your status or your friends and family?"

"Why me," Xiang whispered longingly. Su Wu grabbed the red panda's small chin and glared impatiently at her. "Do not flatter yourself, my dear. I tried to reason with you the kind way, but here's the honest jacked truth; it's your looks and wit. I've searched near and far for the prettiest and most manipulative men and women of my time to do my work. However, I've only met two women who had such a useful and yet backstabbing wit. Your mother was one tool that was thrown in the garbage for simply slacking off her duties to me. But you…you can be more than that!"

"I'm through with your sugared words and persuasions," Xiang snapped fiercely at the snow leopards and managed to reach her parent's chains. When several gorillas and snow leopards began to circle the foursome, Boqin grabbed his daughter's wrist and used the tip of her pinky to unlock his, Yan Mei, and Ying's chains. He then swiftly punched several of their attackers with his right hand still grasping his shocked daughter's left wrist.

"How.." Xiang muttered to herself, as she watched both of her parents and their giant panda friend kick, punch, and pressure point their opponents. Suddenly a hammer whooshed to her face, and Yan Mei was quick enough to lift the hammer away and throw it off course. She also kicked the gorilla's forehead with one smooth front flip and turned to her awestruck daughter.

"Don't just stand there!" She gave Xiang a few odd-looking pins with ancient symbols. Use these to wear off the paralyzing injection of your friends. The sooner you do it, the sooner we'll have more allies to fight with us- HEY! Hands off the ears!" A stupid, roaring ape had took ahold of her ears and threw her into a jagged rock. Luckily, Boqin had came to her aid and got rid of the abusive ape with one pressure point swipe.

Getting the message, Xiang flipped several times to avoid attackers before reaching her comrades and used the eight pins. Once she did however, Wing and Wan Wu thrashed their ferocious faces and claws at her and attacked her on both sides. Thinking quickly, Xiang punched, kicked, jabbed, and lead them to a left ceiling knife trap. To her hidden luck, Wing Wu had pinned her to the farthest corner of the square, and both of the sisters were directly under the trap they didn't detect. "You're finished, you insignificant brat," Wan Wu snarled while stomping on her feet.

"Yeah, and soon your uncritical friends will mourn pitifully with you," Wing Wu nodded and was about to claw the red panda when a weird sound was detected by her and her startled sister. "Wing-" Xiang had enough time to roll away from the aimed and set knives that injured the snow leopards. With one glance, Xiang knew that they weren't dead. It was brutal and made her stomach flipflop, but she'd rather have them imprisoned then set free.

Meanwhile, Rong, Xiaoli, and MingZhu were discussing all that had happened while fighting their own group of foes. "So you two were able to do the impossible, huh?" MingZhu split-kicked four gorillas and flipped over Rong to aid his backside.

"It was simpler to break down the bulky cave then sit there and do nothing," Rong confessed, as he and MingZhu joined hands and cartwheeled together to run over at least thirteen snow leopards and gorillas. Their trial was a success, and Xiaoli smirked in their direction.

"Quite Rong. You were the warrior to convince me to reveal my hidden talents of brutal and sabotaging strength, weren't you?" He slapped a couple handful of opponents and back-kicked several others who tried to leap on his back. "What about you, Miss MingZhu? Was your pleasant stay at the Northern Mountains as entertaining and resourceful as our little stay here?"

"Yeah if you like to be have drool-sickles in your sleep," MingZhu stated, as she flipped over Xiaoli and kicked opponents from her sides. Rong was amused by her outburst and leapt next to the other snow leopard for the chance to sneak some joy out of confronting her.

"You drool in your sleep?" He let out an overdramatic gasp and faked a faint, and a surprised snow leopard was there to support him. He grinned at her teasingly, and the opponent only shot him in the head with a stone slingshot. "Touchy, touchy." He broke the slingshot in half with a bored expression and attacked the snow leopard.

"Don't be so shocked at another's habit!" Xiaoli slid above several opponents on the ground who were trying to stand up from being beaten. He stomped all around them, making them cower and whimper from below. "Note to Rong: You snore like a grizzly bear." From below him, a snow leopard was hidden in the pack of cowering gorillas and clawed his stomach. Quickly getting off the opponents, he decided that slapping them off from sides would be easier and he did so. After he was done, Rong and MingZhu had leapt on his grey back.

"And note to Xiaoli: Know to only use the elephant pride stomp technique on animals that cannot bite you, harm you with weapons, and _claw_ you!"

"He has a point Rong," MingZhu smiled a bit. "In that half hour that all of us being paralyzed together, you managed to release the most horrid and boisterous snore in all of China!" Soon, Junjie and Shifu joined the two snow leopards on Xiaoli's back, as FengHuang had flown freely with a pouting Yuan in her grasp.

"You guys okay," MingZhu asked the two warriors with hints of pure concern. Shifu's response to her may have seemed unemotional, yet he was deeply touched by how caring Xiang's friend was. 'That silly girl is surprisingly an excellent judge of friends,' he thought knowingly to himself.

"We're alright, MingZhu. We just need to gather the rest of our troops before the Wu sisters pull something else up their sleeves." He then spotted Xiang, two other red pandas, and a giant panda standing next to the now imprisoned sisters of Su and fighting off several groups of attackers. Shifu briskly stepped into their aid, once jumping off of the strong elephant. His back met Xiang's, and she immediately followed along with his plan. They joined hands and kicked several enemies by flipping and backflipping over each other. The act they displayed was so accurate and flawless that several of their attackers paused to watch before getting squared in the face. Once they were too breathless to continue, Shifu swung Xiang off to the side and dipped her low. Panting, his mouth came close to her left ear.

"I like that better than the tango," Shifu whispered huskily. Laughing at his words, Xiang slid under him and flicked his tail.

"That's because you do not know _how _to tango," Xiang teased, as she head-butted a staggering opponent. She let out a groan at the impact and was about to catch up with the others, yet someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Xiang," Boqin asked strictly, as he pressure pointed a two switching snow leopards on their shoulders and tripped them. "Are you going to tell me about your new friend?" But before Xiang could even think of a decent answer, Yan Mei and Ying stepped into her aid and swirled her around to kick a series of approaching opponents. AS she kicked under their grips, Yan Mei rolled her mismatched eyes at Boqin.

"Save the drama for the mama of the house, Bobo! She needs a woman to discuss these little emotions called crushes and alien brained beings called boyfriends!" She was lifted by Ying, and the two fought off the tallest gorillas in their stacked stance. Once they left Xiang and Boqin alone, the red panda grinned playfully and innocently at her father.

"Bobo, huh? What's the story behind that?" He blushed a little before ushering her to follow him to the charging elephant and his team.

"When we met," Boqin explained through the wild attacks around them. "Your mother mistook my name for 'Bobo'." He scowled, but soon grinned a bit wistfully at the fond memory. "Stubborn she truly was, she kept that foolish nickname even after knowing that my name was Boqin. You're more like her than you think, Xiang."

"So…I'm stubborn now?"

Boqin's grin faded and he took the moment to glance at Xiang embarrassingly. "What? NO! It's just well, uh!" Xiang only laughed at her father's antics during their sprint and gave him an assuring pat on the back. "It's okay, Baba. I understand what you meant. I just can't wait for her to move in back with us!" Boqin frowned at this, knowing full and well that his daughter was distracting him from the most important question at all.

Once they reached the other young masters, Boqin grabbed Xiang's hands and asked, "Why did you leave to become a master, Xiang?"

Ever since that plotted night at the Mingle Meet, Xiang knew that this day was going to come. With a sigh, Xiang was about to reply, when a mournful cry of traumatizing pain was heard in another direction of the volcano. What they saw in front of them made Shifu, Junjie, Xiang, and all of the young masters gasp. Master Flying Rhino was drenched and moaning exhaustingly in his own blood, after being clawed several times by Su Wu's snow leopard troops and being squeezed to death by that very same female gorilla with violet-gray eyes. The trembling Master Viper stood over his friend and glared at the unseen and retreating snow leopards.

Once they did retreat, only the masters were left in the bubbling volcano with their fallen master. The rhino's now squinting eyes laid on Boqin's face, and he let out a dry laugh. "Good to see you again buddy and to see your family back together." He then noticed Ying and used his fingers to let out one last whistle. "The lovely Ying is back in business, huh?"

"Yes," She smiled sadly and held a few unshed tears. "And pregnant."

This made the rhinoceros master chuckle and pat her shoulder. "Xing is a lucky guy. I hope that that child of yours will get to meet my boy." The young masters gasped in harmony, as well did Boqin, Yan Mei, and Ying.

"You never told us," Ying whispered in shock and sadness.

"We wanted to," Master Viper admitted with a hidden sniff of his snake snout. "But I'm sure that most of you understand the Kung Fu Council's prime rule in the Offspring Associated Scroll; Any child, boy or girl, born to a master or masters must never be involved with the sacred events and situations involved and present until the approved age."

"And I figured that he should know at the age of sixteen," Master Flying Rhino wheezed and panted. "And he is….only ten now….Take care of him with my wife, Dr. R., Master Viper. Take…care of him until…your Lien gives birth." He finally turned to the rest of the masters and muttered, "It has been an….honor…to fight for peace with you…" He slipped into a bloody, silent death, and his comrades could only sniff and hold back the threatening tears that stung their eyes.


	15. Confrontations and Confessions

Confrontations and Confessions

_In the present…_

Day by day, both red pandas were restless. Imagine holding only half a mind full of scattered, third year old memories now discovered and brought into the life. While Shifu knew his parents' death, he would've never guessed that the python race from the Valley of Woe would've laid waste to his valley and be the suspects. Meanwhile, Xiang was in a worser state than Shifu. Up till now, her memories were blurs and evolved around Shifu's name. But now, she remembered every single, little detail. From the facts, such as her dear mother working as a part-time Su Wu chief and heroine of a crumbling city to all of her friends.

They were both able to keep their composure around the Dragon Warrior, for they figured that he was already worried about his comrades and didn't need to sympathize his master and his- ahem- acquaintance. What they forget was was that Po was tragically more observant and clever than that, especially when such occurrences had occurred for a full week of traveling.

"So," Po started the ignition of the conversation, while glancing at the dark circles under Shifu's eyes. "Master, do you have….terrible nightmares?"

His master's eyes glazed in fear for one split second before answering. "At times, Po, yes. And judging by your sleepy mumbles at one in the morning, you have rather..intriguing dreams about my daughter." Po blushed crimson before coughing and answering a relived master.

"Well, what'd you hear?" A dangerous, risky idea bubbled in his all too achingly curious mind. "Because someone 'round here loves to mumble interesting phrases about Xiang." This made the red panda master stop in his tracks, leaving an oblivious Xiang to continue pressing on their journey near the Northern Mountains.

"I wonder who on Earth that would be," Shifu hissed through gritting teeth, simply indicating for Po to shut his mouth up before it'd get kicked into a jaw-breaking silence for the rest of the rescuing journey. "Because the only mumbling I hear every night comes out of only a simpleton's mouth. Do tell me more about Master Tigress."

If Po was slightly less brave at the moment under Shifu's glare, like he often was at the Jade Palace to avoid sleeping the halls of the Training Room or to avoid skipping a hearty lunch, he would've apologized quickly and turn the conversation to a less intense topic. But since a huge portion of his mind was now set on retrieving his friends and secret crush, there was not a single time to be cowardly around any citizen or mater, whether they had control over you or not.

Mirroring Shifu's glare with his jade green eyes, Po circled around Shifu and let out a grim chuckle. "Y'know master, I'd never lie to Tigress, even if it involved her life. Some…people, however, have a, um, tendency to outright lie to their comrades or…loved ones. Do you find that fair, Master?"

'Darn him,' Shifu scowled in his mind. 'He must've heard me sleep talking. And, oh Oogway, did_ she _hear me, too?' "No," Shifu whispered incredulously. "No, I do not believe it is fair, Po. We must catch up with-"

"Oh no, master." Po blocked Shifu's way with a concerned frown. "It's really _her_ that needs to keep up with _you_." Suddenly, a shrilling yell came from the peaks of the Northern Mountains. With squinting eyes, Shifu and Po were able to make out the faintest shape of hairy gorillas attacking….Xiang and the others!

"They must've met us head on, knowing that we would follow," Shifu shouted to Po, while ushering him to follow his death defying sprint up the moaning, blizzards of the mountain. "Let's split up! You reach them from behind their slope, and I'll try to front attack them dead on and distract them simultaneously! Remember the course of the blizzards!"

"They come with free straws," Po guessed over the howling, freezing winds. Po only received a jab in the shoulder by his master, a scowl, and another hit in the face. "OW!"

"Pay attention!" And just like that, Shifu's tiny figure dissolved in the blinding, howling winds of the smothering blizzards. Slumping, Po continued courageously on his chase.

_To Xiang, Tigress, and Monkey…._

"You'd think that they'd give us some space and just ravage a village already," Monkey whispered to a growling, frostbitten Tigress. Neither of the three animals were toasty warm, and their minds were whirling faster and faster by each passing second. Why were they holding them hostage when most would leave them to rot and out of the way?

"What a bunch of low idiots," Tigress seethed with only her face boiling with fury. Xiang cupped Tigress' paws tentatively and smiled motherly at her.

"Hey I may be a small, naive runt in all of this lucky ducky chases and fanciful moves you guys got packed in you, but I'm not lying when I promise you that Shifu and that cuddly boy of yours will rescue us." Tigress' amber eyes softened when peering into Xiang's jungle green ones. This red panda seemed and felt completely confident, honest, and even..radiant? Maybe Tigress was overanalyzing this villager, since there seemed to be more about her that meets the eye.

But before the striped feline could voice out her own thoughts, Xiang let out a staggering gasp and released Tigress' paw. Both Tigress and Monkey looked at each other cautiously before giving the whimpering Xiang a double look. Even in chains, the red panda had managed to back away in fear and put her soft hands over her heart.

"Xiang-"

"This cave," Xiang whispered with ominously cloudy, dilated eyes. "This was where MingZhu's little boy was born….And here she was left to die…" She gave both the freaked out worries a small grin before continuing. "Rong perished as well with several of the Su Wu warriors."

"Su Wu," Monkey questioned. He and Tigress were not too fond of how strangely calm Xiang was revisiting her memories with dilated eyes.

"Yes…" Xiang swaggered a bit and dozed off, before Tigress was able to shake her back to life. Giving a sour chuckle, Xiang continued hauntingly. "Yes….Mama and Baba used to hold me like that before the City of Blissful Fragrance….That's where Master Dog saved me from….from my engagement…." Images of starving flames, shrieking citizens, a tear faced Baba Boqin, a wounded but smiling Mama who smelled like lotus blossoms, and Shifu's cremated wedding ring flawed several times before her eyes. Never had the devastated red panda felt so lost, betrayed, broken, and hopeless.

_In Xiang's memories…_

After the death of Master Flying Rhino, Master FengHuang had flown off after loosing to Master Oogway and loosing her darkening ambition altogether. Surprisingly, Maser Yuan was more traumatic and desperate to find her in the Northern Mountains. Luckily, Master Oogway had put him into a peaceful sleep before erasing his memories of the lovely owl master, and her presence had never been mentioned since.

Several moths later of training and peaceful reunions, Yan Mei had returned from her duties in the City of Blissful Fragrance, informing her father and daughter now of her identity as Lady Wind Song. This, of course, angered Boqin, since she had failed to tell him earlier. Not pleased with his reaction, Yan Mei resumed to her duties with Xing and Ying. But night later, without a warning, the new goose messenger, Zheng, had reported the increasing amounts of gorilla and python bandits. They were demolishing the City of Blissful Fragrance, while avoiding the masters in Gongmen City. A letter from Yan Mei had been sent to the stressed husband and father, informing him and their daughter that she needed their assistance. Master Oogway had allowed all of the masters to be sent, with the exemption of Masters Xiaoli, MingZhu, and Yuan. But once the other masters had reached the city, they were far too late to shield Yan Mei. A sobbing Boqin held her tight and close, but Yan Mei's optimistic smile stayed on her lovely features, even when bleeding to death in the stomach. Her last words to the heartbroken warriors were, "Stay true to your word, children. Lying only gives you more things to worry about." And as soon as Boqin had reached down to kiss his wife's forehead, Lady Wind Song had dissolved into several delicate, sugar pink lotus blossoms and left a fragrance that had set on a teary Xiang for weeks.

"Stop it Xiang," Shifu gently ordered. "Scrubbing your fur so…forcefully isn't going to do the trick. Sighing tiredly, Xiang placed the dripping sponge back on the wooden counter and joined Shifu in the living room. They had rented a small, cozy hut that year in late autumn. The chilling winds have picked up and deserted them from their partnering train of masters in Gongmen Palace. Though being the anxious red panda he was, Shifu was ecstatic to ask Xiang a very critical and life changing question _alone_.

Once she had sat herself down, Xiang noticed how…ruffled and anxious Shifu seemed. Sure, he would usually get worked up over bills and messes left, but not at this odd degree. "What's the case, chief? Did Master Oogway or another builder send another notice? Cause I'm dying to here how MingZhu's adjusting without Rong-oop!" Xiang covered her mouth quickly before revealing too much information. Seeing Shifu's sly grin, Xiang held her high defiantly. "You can't shake it off me, rodent!" Yet, she yelped when Shifu tickled her side.

"Oh can I?"

"Look, what did you want to speak about? Because it's not healthy to start changing subjects like that casanova!"

"I am many things, but most definitely not that," Shifu flushed and scooting farther back with his grin still on his face. "If any of the masters of the Jade Palace were-ahem, a casanova, it'd be you."

"Enlighten me, doof."

"You were leaning very close to Rong once-"

"That was PARENTAL ADVICE AND….. CRUD!" Taking one weepy breath, she admitted to Shifu her best friend's secret. "Shifu, MingZhu and Rong had a secret engagement from the public. We told Master Oogway, but we didn't tell you nor the others because we didn't think-" Xiang stumbled on the billowy tan sofa when Shifu enlaced her in a peachy scented hug.

"Rong's lucky," Shifu whispered happily. "As am I-"

"Huh?"

"Nothing." Shifu secretly shoved his royal blue wedding ring case in the farthest corner of the sofa, away from Xiang's eyesight. "They now have a…child?"

"Yep, and Xiaoli is gonna take Rong's place because the baby is being safely kept with him. I know, MingZhu should've retired, huh? Well, Rong just-" Several knocks were heard from their hut's door, and a frantic, limping Rong had entered the hut.

"The baby's…dead…." Xiang rushed to get the panting snow leopard some bandages for his oozing knees and skull, while Shifu carefully supported his comrade on their sofa. "Why," he whispered to Shifu. "Why weren't yah there for me, Shifu? You and your wife? We've….been….DYING! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HORRIBLE IT IS TO WITNESS YOU SON DYING?" The snow leopard grabbed Shifu's small throat and hoisted him around the room. "DO YOU?" Glancing at the wedding ring box sitting on the sofa, Rong's eyes dilated into golden orbs of that spelled moronically, Rong swing Shifu on the counter and pin his arms by his sides while dangling a glimmering blade above his stomach.

"Your wife's about to feel it there, Shifu," Rong whispered sadistically while aiming the blade at his heart. "Just like MingZhu has felt. Because you two were too caught up in your slow moving proposal to notice, everyone believes that I'm dead!" Rong slashed Shifu's stomach, and Shifu clenched his fists in the silence. He didn't want Xiang to hear him crying under such torment. He'd rather be slain than see her cry over him. "Still thinking of that little tramp?" Rong slashed his stomach several other times. "Well GUESS WHAT? She doesn't give a damn about YOU! Just like her mother-"

Using a flammable broom from the supply closet, Xiang flipped over Rong and burnt Rong in the ribs. "No one," she wanted him. "No one insults my family nor my feelings." She hoisted Shifu's right arm over her shoulder and glared at the hissing Rong. "You've been poisoned in the mind and paralyzed by the bandits, Rong."

Shifu stared at his beloved in amazement. "How'd you-"

"Darling, you and I both know that this conscious and healthy Rong is more of a gentleman than that." She kicked Rong in the nose and backflipped to the front entrance, while still supporting a gawking Shifu. "You; close your mouth. And you; know that MingZhu was devastated over your disappearance and that she couldn't have lived on like that. If you loved her, you'd know."

But before Xiang could've continued, a golden retriever hoisted Xiang over his back and abandoned the two warriors. "Put me down! Put me down! Shifu's-"

"Your father, Master Boqin, has requested me to rescue you after hearing of the attacks, Lady Lotus Blossom." Master Dog soon took down several packs of gorillas and pythons with one free arm, leaving Xiang dumbfounded.

"What? That's not my name!" Sadly, it was Xiang's new title in honor of her mother's dynasty. Her father had embraced her and admitted it was his doing, and because Xiang was unforgivably furious at Boqin for forcing her to leave a wounded Shifu, she had refused to speak with him at the Jade Palace. Soon, she had to confess to him her side of the story. Feeling guilty, Boqin decided to allow her to retrieve Shifu with Master Dog, who had been rewarded a set of ninja weapons from Boqin's own secret and traveling blacksmith skills. However, they had to quickly come back to protect the Valley of Peace from the bloodthirsty bandits.

And on that last night of entering the broken city, Xiang and Master Dog faced several bandits on their own. And unfortunately, the loyal Master Dog had finally fallen from a gorilla's set of arrows, and his last words to the red panda were, "At least Shifu and your dad won't have to worry about delivery delays anymore, huh?"

By now, Xiang was panting and sweating from the agony of it all. If she had only know how horrible and agonizing this sufferings were, she would've never taken that trip with MingZhu to Zhong Province in the first place. Or better yet, she should've never volunteered to be in the Kung Fu tournament arena and convince MingZhu to join.

"No," she whispered with a wryly smile, as her tiny feet soon took her to the entrance of her and Shifu's decaying hut. "I'm a fool for meeting that chief, but a blissful one at that." And that was where the exchange had taken place. The wounded Shifu and paranoid Xiang confronted each other, before the leading group of bandits arrive to injure them. The last memory Xiang had was a sharp, drenching knife opening her side and being dragged into a room a shallow nothingness.

_Back to the present gang…_

Xiang swayed in exhaustion, while putting a trembling hand on her forehead. She had really blacked out there for a second, a second to remember everything and everyone she once had with questions still cutting her sanity. Tear flown freely on her frozen red cheeks. "Shifu…."

"Calm down," one gorilla snapped while forcefully gripping her arms. "What's the matter, pipsqueak? Twenty years ago, yah spunky self took us all down with the boy brat of yours! Ah, what's the matter? Is it my tone? My grip? Do yah want your boyfriend to clear your head? 'Cause us big boys can happily assist you!" The equally rotten and stupid gorillas surrounding them smirked, whistled, and gripped on the python bandits' necks.

Xiang stared at the bandit group of at least five dozen. She had lost her sanity over this whole memory mumble jumble before she even cared. And now, her eyes only mirrored an outline of a soul, without thoughts nor cares. "Shut up, and just clear my head." The gorillas around her roared with menacing laughter, but a still Xiang hadn't even winced. She just wanted this pain to end.

As the bigger gorillas gripped her sides, Tigress and Monkey tried to yell protests at Xiang, yet a few python bandits had injected their bodies and mouths to be completely paralyzed. Xiang glanced at Monkey, who only stared apologetically at her and back at Tigress. The tiger feline, meanwhile, seemed to be in a worse emotional state than the primate. It was as if her amber yes were signaling for Xiang to fight for Master Shifu, her father's happiness. Yet, Xiang refused to give any living soul another hint of sadness. She never wanted to witness a scrunched up face nor a set of teary eyes again.

"I like it better when you're insecure and stony," one gorilla, the leading gorilla, with golden, murderous eyes mentioned, before lowering that very same drenched dagger at her forehead. Xiang could still catch the vague scent of her stomach's blood from long ago. "And I bet that other rat likes you this way, too!"

"You obviously do not know anything about my perspective on the subject of a healthy relationship," a voice cooly stated before head butting the gorilla and his nearby buddies. "Because frankly, even when I'm flattered by your interests, your guess is absolutely false."

"We don't care about you brat," one bald gorilla snapped before jumping over Shifu. Shifu swirly leapt over the gorilla's narrow head, once it had barely reached contact with the snowy ground. And with one back leg cliff, the bandit was sent over the treacherous mountains and to his death.

"Anyone else want a trip to winter land?" Six gorillas surrounded Shifu, before he sent them to his sorry deaths by pinching their pressure points and flinging them in the blizzard's winds. After the thirty first bandit, Shifu felt his limbs almost gave way. But once he craned his neck at Masters Tigress and Monkey, who were released by Po not too long ago, he relaxed and nodded his head in 'thanks' to a gloriously overjoyed Po.

"Take that, Nosy! Slam it, Ti! YEE-HAW!" As Po went on with his amusing but creative attacks and managed to knock out several bandits from the sides, Monkey smirked at Tigress.

"Quite the view, kitty?"

"You better watch it," Tigress wanted playfully, while kicking one bandit in the kisser, while kicking another in the ribs. "These bandits will soon be joined by the famous Master Monkey down the slopes." She scanned to where Shifu was fighting seven or eight bandits and trying to near closer to a numb Xiang at the same time. "Monkey; you aid Po. I'll rescue Xiang from-" A soft paw caressed the feline's face, and Tigress' whiskers twitched at the giant panda flipping over them.

"No worries, Tigress! I got this!" He swooped to gently drape the limp red panda in his arms, while kicking several bandits over the mountains. But to the three other master's shock, the same leading gorilla managed to jab Po from behind and send him tumbling down the Northern Mountains.

"PO!" Tigress, on all fours, dashed to the gorilla and fought him with accidentally released claws.

"Ha! HA! Charming, pretty kitty!" He found a loophole under Tigress' feet, where a small, slippery sheet of snow still jiggled under her left foot. "But I'm afraid we've had enough of your tricks!" He tapped the sheet and slickly slid it to his right foot, making Tigress stagger in a small trip and giving him the chance to send her five merciless, bone crushing pushes in the stomach and jaw. And when Master Monkey jumped from behind him, the bandit only injected the primate with his last stash of paralyzing poison and flung him to join his comrades and fallen foes. Without even looking, the bandit knew how Shifu was staring at him with full on hate and mildly weak windpipes.

"How," he hissed venomously. "Who-Who are you?" Shifu only received another blow from the bandits' fist.

"Since my brothers and other fellow bandits have fallen to your pathetic masters, we have room to speak once more. My name it-" He kicked the panting Shifu over an frozen puddle of water. "Don't PLAY THAT! I am a lost soul, one without any memories of whom I was. And my status is now FULLY erased because of you and that-" Shifu backflipped to kick him square in the jaw and gracefully land back on his feet.

"We've been hidden for several years ever since we took you and your girl down," the bandit continued with his brutal attacks. "And we've found out some news!"

"Such as?"

"It's funny how the snow leopard you were forced to kill was Tai Lung's father, huh?" Shifu's eyes boggled before the bandit cackled and slapped him near the edge of a thin cliff. "That's right! Rong was the father of that renegade! Come to think of it, the whole family was meant to be stabbed back for their crimes! Oh and theres's more, Shifu!" The red panda master tried to enforce his attacks, yet the bandits' strong attack and sufferable grips were all too quick. Fresh blood oozed from his frozen throat and mixed in the frozen blankets of snow around them. The taste of it only made him woozier.

"Why don't you tell Xiang here," He grabbed Xiang's throat and threw her to Shifu's side. "All about just _how_ you two died!" Shifu attempted to weakly shake her though the storm. And miraculously, Xiang moaned back to consciousness and set her eyes on Shifu.

"What's the matter, chief?"

"He's getting the treatment he deserves for lying to his pretty little doll," the gorilla cackled. Xiang wanted to argue, yet he mind was clouding with images of the horrific scene by the second. 'Shifu…was stabbed….And I…..

"Was I….infected?"

"Quite." The bandit kept his gleeful eyes on Xiang's grim expression. "We dragged you to where we were placed with Meng Po's tears (*), and your little deceiving runt here ABANDONED YOU!"

"NO I DID NOT!" Shifu managed to stagger, stand up, and punch the bandit, Sadly, the bandit had the highest advantage being proclaimed when he threw Shifu to Xiang and watched them tumble into each other's numb arms.

"You…" Xiang studied his icy blue eyes with regret and grief. "Knew about my death from the start….all this time…..and never even bothered to _tell_ me?" Tears escaped and froze on Xiang's cheeks, and Shifu's own eyes became blurry under his own guilt.

"I-I wasn't sure-" When Xiang's hand came in contact with Shifu's cheek, the red panda master had no choice but to stare in shock and loss at the vixen he loved. Oh, how he'd give to hear at least one nickname, one careless taunt or joke, or even hear her call him 'chief' in her sweet melodic voice again. Or better yet, a smile would've suited him as much as a clear sky. But no, fate had bitten him back for his mind's shielding. His mastering instincts were the ones to blame. Oh, why didn't' he just follow his heart about the several dreams he had received night after night?

"Please," he begged. "Please don't look at me that way-"

"You left me to ROT!" Suddenly, the gorilla bandit slapped Xiang on the thin, trembling cliff, and Shifu was left to stare numbly at their fight. As he did, his eyes grew wider and wider, and he witnessed his beloved and the villainous bandit fall to their deaths in the biggest, most threatening wind in the blizzard. Feeling faint, Shifu could still make out her last words to him in his unconscious, numb state.

"The end is near, Shifu. And at that brink, we'll be there hand in hand."

**Whew! It's been so long! I'll write the last chapter soon! That wasn't too rushed, was it? I had the feeling that I was droning along in this story. Anyway if you have the ever so wonderful chance, do review! **

**Meng Po****- She was the goddess in ancient China that made tear that caused you to forget about your life. Basically, however, the gorillas and Xiang were in a room full of carbon monoxide, leading to their amnesiac events. Shifu became amnesic because of the unbearable trauma. I know; its not exactly one-hundred percent realistic, but you gotta love these amnesia and discovery stories, right?**


	16. Epilogue: Risks and Rings

Epilogue: Risks and Rings

If one was to observe the darkest, narrowest pit at the bottom of the treacherous and glazed Northern mountains, one would be keen to the sight of five half frostbitten masters with twitching eyes and ears. The furthest to the mountain and the most conscious and healthily, crawled steadily to his precious one.

"Xiang," Shifu whispered under the now softening blizzard winds. Peering at Xiang's sides, Shifu knew that he'd have to receive help from the other masters back at the Jade Palace. Noticing that Master Monkey had began to gain consciousness, he tossed the primate Xiang's snack stash by her side. "Master Monkey, report back to the Jade Palace, and inform the others of this incident as quickly as possible. Once Tigress and Po wake up, I'll have them check the several bandits near and around us."

"It's a miracle how we've all survived," Monkey murmured to himself before running off. But before the primate dashed off, Shifu had one more order to carry out.

"Take Xiang." He gingerly withdrew the drooling red panda, only to have his sides weakly gripped by her delicate and probably broken hands. "Xiang? Xiang! I need you to open your eyes and-"

"Or what, Shifu? See what we've caused? I didn't want anyone to die…."

"No one did," Shifu replied gently, while putting his right hand over her clammy forehead. "Why on Earth did you do that?"

"What? It's not my fault your easy to distract with one grip-"

"Not _that._" Shifu rubbed his tense eyebrows, but then stared at Xiang hopefully when she gave out a musical chuckle. "I-I meant…."

"Master?" Shifu simply nodded to a smiling Monkey, and the primate master took off with the scrumptious snacks.

"Whatsahe doin' wit my-" Shifu kissed her forehead, while keeping a firm right hand over her mouth. Carrying her bridal style, Shifu eyed Xiang lovingly, and yet was so shocked by their survival. How on Earth were they able to survive and miss that deadly jump from that narrow cliff?

"By the way, I know what you're thinking, nerd. I remembered when we made that jump from Gongmen City…..the closer the jump, chief, I realized, the better point of survival, especially when there were more enemies around us. They missed it because they were being clomped and stomped around by us masters at once. The safe slope we're on…..they overlooked it."

"How were you so sure," Shifu snapped. He just couldn't believe her views on their fight! There was practically a one in a billion chance of their survival by just pure instincts, especially when one stubborn red panda was following that risky statistic. And aide from all that, shouldn't she be, well, still very enraged at what he had done?

Shifu turned his head sharply in her direction when she began to laugh even louder than before, waking Po and Tigress. "I've been dead for twenty years, Shifu. What difference would it have made? If there was only one chance, once star out of one hopeless sky, I'd dodged for it again just as I did right now. Besides, your students are totally wicked! They did most of the dirty work, chief. Not me. You're extremely lucky to have 'em." A fiery blush crept on Xiang's still frozen cheeks, warming them. "And… they're, uh, lucky to have a swell master like you."

Shifu held her closer, taking in her sweet, peachy and lotus blossom scent. "Forgive me," Shifu whispered with a hint of a sniff. "I never meant to-"

"Of course you didn't," Xiang assured him soothingly, while stroking his shoulders. "You-You were only doing what was best at the moment. Well, you were doing two things-confessing and fighting. Sure, it injured me on the sides a bit and made your legs go a bit limp and so on…." She attempted to kiss his cheek, yet her energy was being swiped little by little through every passing second in the mountains, and she kissed his chin. "But…you did what you had to do….You didn't know….And you've got some stories to tell me about what I've been missing, son!" Shifu chuckled a little at her plea, yet he soon resumed to his duties with a stern, but concerned frown.

"Come," Shifu scanned the corpses of the bandits, both gorillas and dragged pythons. "We must resume to the Jade Palace to heal you."

"Shifu?" He paused from his train of thought to peer once more at Xiang. "Baba...Will we see him again? The rest have fallen...but never him."

He considered this briefly, for even if the chance of finding the retired master was very, very slim after all the years that had past, the chance was as likely as them surviving this mental and physical ordeal of the past. Who was he to decide right away about risks? Shifu never would've believed twenty years ago, in a small, leaky hut that they'd get out alive after so many years. But oh, he couldn't determine how many risks he'd take to see that sweet smile on this vixen, his vixen's face.

And frankly, he didn't have the heart to ignore her answer when he knew that she'd always be there for him.

"Possibly," Shifu replied with a small flicker of a smile. "Your father, if he stays alive, our paths may cross."

Xiang gave him a toothy smile before embracing him firmly. "He'll like you, Shifu. And the other masters, they'd be content to know you two got along. Boy, I miss him...But as long as I have one pesky red panda to order me around, I'll be as content as...one who's forever loved. And that's just who I am, isn't it? That's just who I am."

Meanwhile, Tigress and Po were watching the two masters with relief in their eyes. For a moment, a few other moments of peaceful rest were needed for the warriors, especially one very hardcore tigress.

"Whew," Po breathed with a small portion of his signature, dimply grin. "We did it, Tigress. Shifu's finally got a girl!" His comrade next to him giggled at his enthusiasm, while subconsciously inching closer to his side.

"That's no surprise judging by how….peaceful Shifu has become…"

"Y'know," Po continued with his grin still staying strong and genuine. "He needs her more than she'll ever know because her ego is not as high enough to raise the stakes, and yet it's not too low to succumb to what he ever so wants. She's….just there. Whether he wants her there or not, Xiang stays herself and stays unique. Even when she seems ditzy, her courage and attitude and jokes have kept him going. Maybe she was what he was missing, while she needed him to….y'know, be complete." Tigress' eyes widened at how intelligent and sincere his small speech was, and a compassionate smile stretched across her beautiful features.

"You think they'll get married, Tigress?" The tigress was caught off guard by such a broad question, yet she answered him nonetheless.

"I think it's there-"

"MY RING!" The two warriors turned to Shifu and Xiang, whom were embracing each other warmly. "Hey you nincompoops! The old man's finally done it! Ti! Be my maid of honor! Please! PLEASE!" Blushing, Tigress sighed and kissed a goofily smug Dragon Warrior.

"Don't get so pompous yet," Tigress warned with a wink. "You don't even know who'll catch the bouquet." Smiling contently at the giant panda's flushing face, Tigress leapt off her feet and shook them. "Let's ditch these slopes, Po. You still haven't taught me Inner Peace, and I'm going to need it for a wedding!"

**I am DONE! Please review! ALOHA!**


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